An  Great  Irish  Statesman 


By  Shan  F.  Bullock. 

the   unanimous    api 
.-     Plunk' • 

.  ommlssion  intrusted 
will-    tho    gigantic    task    of    formul. 

•    the  Trlsh   question.     Sir 

•  known  in  America  per- 
hnps  than  In  his  own  territory  ;  probably 

ited     there    than    at 

le  of  him,  which 

ow,    that   maybe   has    not 

been  sufficiently  Illuniinntetl  by  tin-  many 

•  >  written  impressions  of 
is  his  literary   sifle. 

I'lunkett  and   Literature. 

Sir    Horace   is    on    Oxford    man.      That 

cultured,    educated    accord- 

•he    traditional    standards    of   the 

British     gentK-raan.       You     have     but    to 

ith   him  for  half  an   hour  to  dls- 

•  ut    if    you    talked    for    days 
you  might  fail  to  find  his  literary  tenden- 

not    bookish.      He    does    not 
-.•holarship.      You    might    call    him 

•  a    matter    of    fact,    perhaps 
lutle:  certainly  if  you  wanted   his 
you   would   keep  tho  talk  on   the 

•  •lol.'gy,    farming. 

.,rion,   Irish  and   Imperial   politics, 

iss   such   trifles   as 

scientific    chess    strategy    and    the    philo- 
sophic   significance   of    golf.      But    if   you 
were  a  writing  man,  and  ho  knew  it,  be- 
u-ould  be  referring  to  some- 
!    written    or    was    about    to 
the  moment  was  prodigiously 
laboring  to  write. 

a   liking  for  your  writ- 
ins  man.  You  shall  find  the  names  of  most 
inscribed    in    tin-    visitors'    book 
ragh.      If    yon    visited    him,    most 
yon     would     find     Journalists      or 
novelists    or  essayists    among    his   house 
-   1    over    the    -vorld      his      best 
friends    are   IHerary    men — and    they    ore 
friends    to    him    and    they    help    him;    for 
a    shining    side    of    Sir    Horace's    person- 
ality is  his  capacity  for  friendship.     lie 
bar  a  noble  nature.     He  is  true  as  steel. 
Ills  first  Instinct  Is  to  serve  you. 

A    Voluminous    Writer. 

d    Sir    Horace    to    collect 

his   writh  uniform   edition.     It 

f        Kvt-n    when 

;ig    up    in     Wyoming    you 

would    find   him  day. 

'•••rial 

ad- 
,r-s    to    civic,    official    and    academic 


bodies — Sir   Horace   has   achieved   a 

•ratnre.     IT-  "etry.   but 

•lit    that    he    writes    it.       ' 
•i    and    can    judge    it;    but    nor 
he  put   his  experiences   into  a   n- 
•tis    he  will,   some   day    when    In 
;     Ireland.       Anyhow  •  ater- 

prising    publisher    should    tempt    him    to 
his    remin  It    would    be   a 

line    book.      Sir    Horace    is    full    of   good 
;  and  n«   full  of  wit  and  humor  in 
relating  them. 

Anyone    who    has    r*ad    his    books    and 
fugitive  pieces  knows   how  well  they  are 
They  are  always  thought  out,  log- 
.-•li-ar    as    print.    Interesting,    with    a 
of  style  and  always  that  pervading 
glimmer    of    humor.       Even    that    much- 
discussed  book.  "Ireland  in  the  Nineteenth 
Century."   has  a  glow  in  it  which  should, 
but    it     doesn't,    ingratiate    the    heart    of 
your    Irish    Irreconcilable.      And    isn't    it 
interesting'      And    doesn't    It    prove    au- 
thorship in  its  writer? 

You  might  think  that  Sir  Horace  wrote 
easily.  But  he  does  not.  TCathcr  does 
he  squeeze  out  literature  with  enormous 
effort.  It  must  rack  him  to  bit 
have  seen  him  agonize  over  a  letter  In 
one,  found  him  sitting  In  bed  kill- 
ing pain  over  the  intricacies  of  a  docu- 
ment on  farming  or  the  problems  of  the 
middle  West.  His  copy  drives  typists 
to  tears;  his  proofs  make  even  pri- 
despair.  His  method  Is  to  dicta' 
length,  and  then,  whilst  the  world  is 
;>,  revise  and  revise  and  revise;  then 
do  a  day's  work  and  begin  revising 
again  on  the  type  scrip;  then  sleep  and 
wake  and  begin  again.  .  .  . 

A  very  affecting  servicA  was  held  last 
week  in  St.  Bride's  Church,  Floet  street, 
in  memory  of  the  London  journalists 
and  their  near  relatives  who  have  fallen 
in  the  war.  These  numbered  about  110 
and  included  pome  well-known  and  prom- 
-  men.  The  American  ambassador 
was  present,  the  lord  mayor  and  his 
aldermen  and  many  other  notables,  and 
the  Bishop  of  London  conducted  the  serv- 
ice. 


f 


Ireland  in  the  New  Century 


IRELAND 
IN  THE  NEW  CENTURY 


BY  THE   RIGHT  HON. 

SIR  HORACE  PLUNKETT,  K.C.V.O.,  F.R.S. 


NEW  YORK 
E.     P.    DUTTON    &    CO. 

1904 


TO   THE   MEMORY   OF 

W.    E.   H.    LECKY, 

I    DEDICATE    ALL    IN   THIS    BOOK 
THAT   IS    WORTHY   OF  THE   FRIENDSHIP 

WITH  WHICH  HE   HONOURED   ME, 

AND    OF    THE    COUNSEL    WHICH    HE    GAVE    ME 

FOR  MY  GUIDANCE  IN  IRISH  PUBLIC  LIFE. 


2061330 


PREFACE] 

Those  who  have  known  Ireland  for  the  last  dozen 
years  cannot  have  failed  to  notice  the  advent  of  a  wholly 
new  spirit,  clearly  based  upon  constructive  thought,  and 
expressing  itself  in  a  wide  range  of  fresh  practical 
activities.  The  movement  for  the  organisation  of  agri- 
culture and  rural  credit  on  co-operative  lines,  efforts  of 
various  kinds  to  revive  old  or  initiate  new  industries, 
and,  lastly,  the  creation  of  a  department  of  Government 
to  foster  all  that  was  healthy  in  the  voluntary  effort  of 
the  people  to  build  up  the  economic  side  of  their  life, 
are  each  interesting  in  themselves.  When  taken  together, 
and  in  conjunction  with  the  literary  and  artistic  move- 
ments, and  viewed  in  their  relation  to  history,  politics, 
religion,  education,  and  the  other  past  and  present 
influences  operating  upon  the  Irish  mind  and  character, 
these  movements  appear  to  me  to  be  worthy  of  the  most 
thoughtful  consideration  by  all  who  are  responsible  for, 
or  desire  the  well-being  of,  the  Irish  people. 

I  should  not,  however,  in  days  when  my  whole  time 
and  energies  belong  to  the  public  service,  have  under- 
taken the  task  of  writing  a  book  on  a  subject  so  complex 
and  apparently  so  inseparable  from  heated  controversy, 
were  I  not  convinced  that  the  expression  of  certain 
thoughts  which  have  come  to  me  from  practical  contact 


Viii  PREFACE. 

with  Irish  problems,  was  the  best  contribution  I  could 
make  to  the  work  on  which  I  was  engaged.  I  wished,  if 
I  could,  to  bring  into  clearer  light  the  essential  unity  of 
the  various  progressive  movements  in  Ireland,  and  to  do 
something  towards  promoting  a  greater  definiteness  of 
aim  and  method,  and  a  better  understanding  of  each 
other's  work,  among  those  who  are  in  various  ways 
striving  for  the  upbuilding  of  a  worthy  national  life  in 
Ireland. 

So  far  the  task,  if  difficult,  was  congenial  and  free 
from  embarrassment  Unhappily,  it  had  been  borne  in 
upon  me,  in  the  course  of  a  long  study  of  Irish  life,  that 
our  failure  to  rise  to  our  opportunities  and  to  give  prac- 
tical evidence  of  the  intellectual  qualities  with  which 
the  race  is  admittedly  gifted,  was  due  to  certain  defects 
of  character,  not  ethically  grave,  but  economically  par- 
alysing. I  need  hardly  say  I  refer  to  the  lack  of  moral 
courage,  initiative,  independence  and  self-reliance — 
defects  which,  however  they  may  be  accounted  for,  it 
is  the  first  duty  of  modern  Ireland  to  recognise  and 
overcome.  I  believe  in  the  new  movements  in  Ireland, 
principally  because  they  seem  to  me  to  exert  a  stimu- 
lating influence  upon  our  moral  fibre. 

Holding  such  an  opinion,  I  had  to  decide  between 
preserving  a  discreet  silence  and  speaking  my  full  mind 
The  former  course  would,  it  appeared  to  me,  be  a  poor 
example  of  the  moral  courage  which  I  hold  to  be  Ireland's 
sorest  need.  Moreover,  while  I  am  full  of  hope  for  the 
future  of  my  country,  its  present  condition  does  not,  in 


PREFACE.  IX 

my  view,  admit  of  any  delay  in  arriving  at  the  truth  as  to 
the  essential  principles  which  should  guide  all  who  wish 
to  take  a  part,  however  humble,  in  the  work  of  national 
regeneration. 

I  desire  to  state  definitely  that  I  have  not  written  in 
any  representative  capacity  except  where  I  say  so  expli- 
citly. I  write  on  my  own  responsibility,  with  the  full 
knowledge  that  there  is  much  in  the  book  with  which 
many  of  those  with  whom  I  work  do  not  agree. 

December,  1903. 


CONTENTS 

PART  I. 
THEORETICAL. 

CHAPTER  I. 

THE   ENGLISH  MISUNDERSTANDING. 

PAGE 

Fidelity  of  the  Irish  to  the  National  Ideal        ...             ...             ...  i 

Disregard  of  Material  Advantage  in  its  Pursuit           ...             ...  2 

Home  Rule  Movement  under  Gladstone          ...            ...            ...  3 

The  Anti-Climax  under   Lord   Rosebery           ...             ...             ...  4 

The  Logic  of  Events  and  the  Dawn  of  the  Practical  ...            ...  5 

The  Mutual  Misunderstanding   of   England  and    Ireland           ...  7 
The    Dunraven    Conference   produces   a    Revolution   in    English 

Thought  about   Ireland                  ...             ...             ...             ...  8 

The  Actual  Change  Examined             ...             ...             ...             ...  10 

Future  Misunderstanding  best  averted  by  considering  Nature  of 

Anti-English    Feeling                     ...             ...             ...             ...  12 

Illustration  from  Irish-American   Life               ...             ...             ...  13 

Importance  of  Sentiment  in  Ireland — English  Habit  of  Ignoring  15 

Historical  Grievances  Still   Operative               ...             ...             ...  16 

The    Commercial    Restrictions — Remaining    Effects  of               ...  17 

Irish  Land  Tenure — Lord   Dufferin  on             ...             ...             ...  20 

Defects  of  Land   Laws — Their  Effect  on  Agriculture  ...             ...  21 

Right  Attitude  towards  Historic  Grievances  ...             ...             ...  25 

Plea  for  Broader  and  more  Philosophic  View  of  Irish  Question  27 

Simple  Explanations  and   Panaceas  Deprecated           ...            ...  28 

A   Many-Sided  Human  Problem          ...             ...             ...             ...  29 


Xii  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  II. 
THE  IRISH  QUESTION  IN  IRELAND. 

PAGE 

Misunderstanding  of  the  Irish  People    by   the    English  and    by 

Themselves                        ...            ...            ...            ...  ...  30 

Anomalies  of   Irish   Life       ...            ...            ...            ...  ...  33 

The  New  Movement — Position  of  Nationalists  and  Unionists  in  it  35 

North  and   South      ...            ...             ...             ...            ...  ...  38 

The  Question  of  Rural   Life               ...            ...            ...  ...  39 

Economic  Side  of  the  Question           ...             ...            ...  ...  41 

Grazing  versus  Tillage           ...            ...            ...            ...  ...  43 

Peasant  Organisation  to  be  Supplemented  by  State-Aid  ...  45 

Uneconomic  Holdings  too  Prevalent  ...             ...             ...  ...  46 

Remedies  Proposed                 ...            ...            ...            ...  ...  48 

Salvation  not  by  Agriculture  Alone                 ...            ...  ...  51 

Rural  Industries  and  the  Irish  Home              ...            ...  ...  53 

Reasons  for  Arrested  Development  of   Home   Life       ...  ...  57 

Inter-Dependence  cf  the  Sentimental   and  Practical  in  Ireland  58 

Outlines  of  Succeeding  Chapters        ...            ...            ...  ...  59 


CHAPTER  III. 
THE  INFLUENCE  OF  POLITICS  UPON  THE  IRISH  MIND. 

Legislation  as  a  Substitute  for  Work              ...            ...  ...  61 

Political  Shortcomings  of  Unionism  and  Nationalism  Compared  62 

Action  of  the  Unionist  Party  Reviewed           ...            ...  ...  63 

Two  Main  Causes  of  its  Lack  of  Success          ...            ...  ...  64 

The  Contribution  of  Ulster                 ...            ...             ...  ...  66 

The    Nationalist  Party           ...             ...             ...             ...  ...  69 

Are    Irishmen    Good  Politicians?       ...             ...            ...  ...  70 


CONTENTS.  Xlll 

PAGE 

The  Irish  and  the  Scotch-Irish  in  America       ...             ...             ...  71 

America's  Interest   in  the    Problem   ...             ...             ...             ...  74 

Part  Played    by    English    Government    in     Producing    Modern 

Irish  Disabilities              ...             ...             ...             ...             ...  75 

Causes  of  the  Growth  of  National   Feeling   ...             ...             ...  77 

Retardation  of  Political  Education   by   the  One-Man  System    ...  78 

And  by   Politicians   of   To-Day           ...             ...             ...             ...  81 

Defence  of  Nationalist  Policy  on  Ground  of  Tactics  Considered  ...  82 

The  Forces  opposed  to  Home  Rule — How  Dealt  with                ...  86 

Local  Government — How  it  might  have  been  utilised                 ...  88 

After  Home  Rule?                 ...            ...            ...            ...            ...  89 

Beginnings    of  Political    Education    ...             ...             ...             ...  90 

The  Irish  Parliamentary  Party           ...             ...             ...             ...  91 


CHAPTER  IV. 
THE  INFLUENCE  OF  RELIGION  UPON  SECULAR  LIFE  IN  IRELAND. 

Influences  of   Religion   in   Ireland      ...             ...  ...  ...  94 

What  is   Toleration?              ...             ...             ...  ...  ...  95 

Protestantism  in  Irish   Life  ...             ...             ...  ...  ...  98 

Roman  Catholicism   and    Economics                 ...  ...  ...  101 

Power  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Clergy             ...  ...  ...  105 

Has  it  been  Abused?             ...            ...            ...  ...  ...  106 

Church   Building   and    Monastic   Establishments  ...  ...  107 

Clerical   Education                   ...             ...             ...  ...  ...  109 

Responsibility  of  the  Clergy  for  Irish  Character  ...  ...  no 

The  Church   and   Temperance             ...             ...  ...  ...  112 

The  Inculcation  of  Chastity  ...             ...             ...  ...  ...  115 

The  Priest  in  Politics              ...             ...             ...  ...  ...  117 

New  Movement  among  the  Roman   Catholic  Clergy  ...  ...  118 

Duty  and  Interest   of   Protestantism                 ...  ...  ...  119 

What  each  Creed  has  to  Learn   from   the  other  121 


xiv  CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  V. 
A  PRACTICAL  VIEW  OF  IRISH  EDUCATION. 

English    Government   and    Education 

The  Kildare   Street   Society 

Scheme  of  Thomas  Wyse 

Early  Attempts   at   Practical  Education 

Recents  Reports  on   Irish  Systems     ... 

The  Policy  of  the  Department  of  Agriculture 

The  Example  of   Denmark  ... 

University   Education  for   Roman   Catholics  ... 

Maynooth   and  its  Limitations 

Trinity  College 

Its  Lack  of  Influence  on  the  Irish  Mind         ...  . 

A  Democratic  University  Called  for  ...  ...  . 

National  and  Economic  in  its  Aims  ...  ...  , 

Views  of  Roman  Catholic  Ecclesiastics 

The  Two   Irelands 

Lord  Chesterfield  on  Education  and  Character 


CHAPTER  VI. 
THROUGH  THOUGHT  TO  ACTION. 

A  Word  to  my  Critics          ...            ...            ...  ...  ...  146 

The  Gaelic  League                ...            ...            ...  ...  ...  148 

Compared  with  the  Irish  Agricultural  Organisation  Society     ...  149 

Objects  and  Constitution  of  the  League            ...  ...  ...  150 

Filling  the  Gap  in  Irish  Education  ...            ...  ...  ...  152 

Patriotism  and    Industry       ...            ...            ...  ...  ...  153 

Nationality  and   Nationalism               ...            ...  ...  ...  154 


CONTENTS.  XV 

PACK 

A   Possible  Danger                                 ...             ...             ...  ...  156 

Extravagances   in   the   Movement       ...             ...             ...  ...  158 

The  Gaelic  League  and  the  Rural  Home          ...            ...  ...  159 

Meeting   with  Harold  Frederic          ...            ...            ...  ...  161 

His  Pessimistic  Views  on  the  Celt   ...             ...             ...  ...  162 

A  New  Solution  of  the  Problem — Organised  Self-Help  ...  165 

English  and  Irish  Industrial  Qualities            ...            ...  ...  166 

Special  Value  of  the  Associative  Qualities      ...            ...  ...  167 

Conclusion  of  Part  I.            ...            ...            ...            ...  ...  169 


PART  II. 
PRACTICAL. 

CHAPTER  VII. 

THE  NEW  MOVEMENT  ;  ITS  FOUNDATION  ON  SELF-HELP. 

Distrust  of  Novel  Schemes  often  well  justified  ...  ...  175 

The  Story  of  the  New   Movement     ...            ...  ...  ...  178 

Necessitated  by  Foreign  Competition              ...  ...  ...  179 

Production  and  Distribution                 ...             ...  ...  ...  180 

Causes  of    Continental    Superiority    ...            ...  ...  ...  181 

Objects  for  which  Combination  is  Desirable  ...  ...  ...  182 

How  to  Organise  the  Industrial  Army            ...  ...  ...  183 

Help  from    England              ...            ...            ...  ...  ...  184 

Doubts  and  Difficulties         ...            ...            ...  ...  ...  185 

Some   Favouring  Conditions               ...            ...  ...  ...  186 

The  Beginning  of  the  Work — Co-operative  Creameries  ...--  187 

The  Social    Problem               ...            ...            ...  ...  ...  188 

Early   Efforts  and  Experiences           ...            ...  ...  ...  189 

Foundation  of  the  I.A.O.S.  ...            ...            ...  ...  ...  191 

Its  Present   Position               ...            ...            ...  ...  ...  192 


CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

Agricultural   Banks  ...  ...  ...  ...  ...  195 

The  Brightening  of  Home  Life  ...  ...  ...  ...  199 

Staff  of  the  Society  ...  ...  ...  ...  ...  200 

Philanthropy  and  Business   ...  ...  ...  ...  ...  204 

Enquiries  from  Abroad          ...  ...  ...  ...  ...  205 

Moral  and  Social  Effects  of  the  New  Movement  ...  ...  207 

Unknown  Leaders  ...  ...  ...  ...  ...  209 

CHAPTER  VIII. 

THE  RECESS  COMMITTEE. 

After  Six  Years       ...  ...  ...  ...  ...  ...  210 

Opportunity  for  State-Aid  ...  ...  ...  ...  211 

^Combination  of  Political  and  Industrial  Leadership  ...  ...  212 

A   Letter   to   the  Press  ...  ...  ...  ...  ...  213 

Mr.    Justin   McCarthy's    Reply  ...  ...  ...  ...  216 

Mr.  Redmond's  Reply  ...  ...  ...  ...  ...  217 

Formation  of  the  Committee  ...  ...  ...  ...  218 

Investigations   on    the   Continent       ...  ...  ...  ...  219 

Recommendations  of  the  Committee  ...  ...  ...  ...  220 

Position  of  the  Nationalist  Members  of  the  Committee  ...  222 

Chief  Reliance  on   Local   Effort         ...  ...  ...  ...  223 

Public  Opinion  on  the  New  Proposals  ...  ...  ...  224 

Adoption  of  the  Bill  to  give  effect  to  them      ...  ...  ...  224 

Mr.   Gerald  Balfour's   Policy  ...  ...  ...  ...  225 

Industrial   Home   Rule          ...  ...  ...  ...  ...  226 

CHAPTER  IX. 
A  NEW  DEPARTURE  IN  IRISH  ADMINISTRATION. 

Functions  and  Constitution  of  the  New  Department  ...  227 

How  it  is  Financed  ...  ...  ...  ...  ...  231 

The  Representative  Element  in  its  Constitution  ...  ...  232 

The   Right  to  Vote  Supplies  ...  ...  ...  ...  235 


CONTENTS.  XV11 

PAGE 

Consultative  Committee  on    Education  ...  ...  ...  236 

The  Department  Linked  with  the  Local  Government  System    ...  238 

Successful  Co-operation  with  Local  Government  Bodies  ...  240 

And   with   Voluntary    Societies  ...  ...  ...  ...  241 

The  New  Department  and  the  Congested  Districts  Board  ...  243 

The  Reception  of  the  Department  by  the  Country          ...  ...  246 

Some  Typical  Callers  ...  ...  ...  ...  ...  247 

A  Wrong  Impression  Anticipated       ...  ...  ...  ...  256 

CHAPTER  X. 

GOVERNMENT  WITH  THE  CONSENT  OF  THE  GOVERNED. 

Summary   of  Previous   Chapter  ...  ...  ...  ...  257 

The  Attitude  of  the  People  towards  the  Department      ...  ...  258 

Method  of  Co-operation   with  Local   Bodies   ...  ...  ...  261 

State-Aid,    Direct  and    Indirect  ...  ...  ...  ...  262 

The  Department  and  the  Large  Towns  ...  ...  ...  263 

The  Department's  Plans  for  Developing  Agriculture  ...  ...  264 

The  Industrial  Problem  and  Education  ...  ...  ...  265 

The  Difficulty  of  Finding  Trained  Teachers     ...  ...  ...  267 

How  Surmounted  ...  ...  ...  ...  ...  268 

Difficulties  of  Agricultural  Education  ...  ...  ...  269 

Decision    to   Adopt  Itinerant    Instruction         ...  ...  ...  270 

Double  Purpose  of  this  Instruction    ...  ...  ...  ...  271 

Relation  of  the  Department  with  Secondary  Schools  ...  ...  272 

Importance  of  Domestic  Economy  Teaching    ...  ...  ...  272 

Provision   of  Teachers  in  Domestic  Economy  ...  ...  274 

Miscellaneous   Industries  ...  ...  ...  ...  275 

Competition  of  the   Factory  ...  ...  ...  ...  275 

The  Department's  Fabian  Policy  Justified       ...  ...  ...  276 

Its  Support  by  the  Country  ...  ...  ...  ...  278 

Improvement   of   Live-Stock  ...  ...  ...  ...  279 

Best  Method  of  giving  Object  Lessons  in  Agriculture  ...  281 

b 


xviii  CONTENTS. 

PACK 

Sea    Fisheries  ...  ...  ...  ...  ...  282 

Continental  Tours  for   Irish   Teachers  ...  ...  ...  284 

Cork    Exhibition  of    1902       ...  ...  ...  ...  ...  285 

Things  and  Ideas  ...  ...  ...  ...  ...  287 

Concluding  Words  ...  ...  ...  .,.  ...  287 

INDEX  ...  ...  ...  ...  ...  ...  293 


PART  I. 
THEORETICAL. 


"  It  is  hard  to  say  where  history  ends,  and  where  religion  and  politics 
begin ;  for  history,  religion  and  politics  grow  on  one  stem  in  Ireland, 
an  eternal  trefoil." — Lady  Gregory. 


CHAPTER   I. 
THE  ENGLISH  MISUNDERSTANDING. 

Whatever  may  be  the  ultimate  verdict  of  history  upon 
the  long  struggle  of  the  majority  of  the  Irish  people  for 
self-government,  the  picture  of  a  small  country  with 
large  aspirations  giving  of  its  best  unstintingly  to  the 
world,  while  gaining  for  itself  little  beyond  sympathy, 
will  appeal  to  the  imagination  of  future  ages  long  after 
the  Irish  Question,  as  we  know  it,  has  been  buried. 
It  may  then,  perhaps,  be  seen  that  the  aspirations 
came  to  nought  because  they  were  opposed  to  the 
manifest  destiny  of  the  race,  and  that  it  should  never 
have  been  expected  or  desired  that  the  Dark  Rosaleen 
should  '  reign  and  reign  alone.'  Nevertheless,  the  fidelity 
and  fortitude  with  which  the  national  ideal  had  been 
pursued  would  command  admiration,  even  if  the  ideal 
itself  were  to  be  altogether  abandoned,  or  if  it  were  to  be 
ultimately  realised  in  a  manner  which  showed  that  the 
methods  by  which  its  attainment  had  been  sought 
were  the  cause  of  its  long  postponement.  Whatever  the 
future  may  have  in  store  for  the  remnant  of  the  Irish 
people  at  home,  the  continued  pursuit  of  a  separate 
national  existence  by  a  nation  which  is  rapidly  dis- 


2  THE    ENGLISH    MISUNDERSTANDING. 

appearing  from  the  land  of  all  its  hopes,  and  the  cherish- 
ing of  these  hopes,  not  only  by  those  who  stay  but  also 
by  those  who  go,  will  stand  as  a  monument  to  human 
constancy. 

The  picture  will  be  all  the  more  remarkable  when 
emphasised  by  a  contrast  which  the  historian  will  not 
fail  to  draw.  Across  a  narrow  streak  of  sea  another 
people,  during  the  same  period,  increased  and  multiplied 
and  prospered  mightily,  spread  their  laws  and  institu- 
tions, and  achieved  in  every  portion  of  the  globe  material 
success  which  they  can  call  their  own.  Yet,  although 
Irishmen  have  done  much  to  win  that  success  for  the 
English  people  to  enjoy,  and  are  to-day  foremost  in 
maintaining  the  great  empire  which  their  brain  and 
muscle  were  ever  ready  to  augment,  Ireland  makes  no 
claim  for  herself  in  respect  of  the  achievement.  It  is  to 
her  but  a  proof  of  what  her  sons  will  do  for  her  in  the 
coming  time ;  it  does  not  bring  her  nearer  to  her  heart's 
desire. 

Although  the  nineteenth  century,  with  all  its  mar- 
vellous contributions  to  human  progress,  left  Ireland 
with  her  hopes  unfulfilled ;  although  its  sun  went  down 
upon  the  British  people  with  their  greatest  failure  still 
staring  them  in  the  face,  its  last  decade  witnessed  at 
first  a  change  in  the  attitude  of  England  towards  Ireland, 
and  afterwards  a  profound  revolution  in  the  thoughts  of 
Ireland  about  herself.  The  strangest  and  most  interest- 
ing feature  of  these  developments  was  that  in  practical 
England  the  Irish  Question  became  the  great  political 


ENGLAND  AND  IRISH  DEMOCRACY  3 

issue,  while  in  sentimental  Ireland  there  set  in  a  reaction 
from  politics  and  an  inclination  to  the  practical.  The 
twentieth  century  has  already  brought  to  birth  the  new 
Ireland  upon  whose  problems  I  shall  write.  If  the 
human  interest  of  these  problems  is  to  be  realized,  if 
their  significance  is  not  to  be  as  wholly  misunderstood 
as  that  of  every  other  Irish  movement  which  has  per- 
plexed the  statesmen  who  have  managed  our  affairs,  they 
must  be  studied  in  their  relation  to  the  English  and  Irish 
events  of  the  period  in  which  the  new  Ireland  was 
conceived. 

In  1885  Gladstone,  appealing  to  an  electorate  with  a 
large  accession  of  newly  enfranchised  voters,  transferred 
the  struggle  over  the  Irish  Question  from  Ireland  to 
Great  Britain.  The  position  taken  up  by  the  average 
English  Home  Ruler  was,  it  will  be  remembered,  simple 
and  intelligible.  The  Irish  had  stated  in  the  proper 
constitutional  way  what  they  wanted,  and  that,  in  the 
first  flush  of  a  victorious  democracy,  when  counting  heads 
irrespective  of  contents  was  the  popular  method  of 
arriving  at  political  truth,  was  assumed  to  be  precisely 
what  they  ought  to  have.  A  long  but  inconclusive 
contest  ensued.  At  times  it  looked  as  if  the  Liberal- 
Irish  alliance  might  snatch  a  victory  for  their  policy. 
But  when  Gladstone  was  forced  to  break  with  the 
Irish  Leader,  and  Parnellism  without  Parnell  became 
obviously  impossible,  the  English  realised  that  the 
working  of  representative  institutions  in  Ireland  had 
produced  not  a  democracy  but  a  dictatorship,  and  they 


4  THE     ENGLISH     MISUNDERSTANDING. 

began  to  attach  a  lesser  significance  to  the  verdict  of  the 
Irish  polls.  Their  faith  in  democracy  was  unimpaired, 
but,  in  their  opinion,  the  Irish  had  not  yet  risen  to  its 
dignity.  So  most  English  Radicals  came  round  to  a 
view  which  they  had  always  reprobated  when  ad- 
vanced by  the  English  Conservatives,  and  political 
inferiority  was  added  to  the  other  moral  and 
intellectual  defects  which  made  the  Irish  an  inferior 
race! 

The  anti-climax  to  the  Gladstone  crusade  was  reached 
when  Lord  Rosebery  in  1894  took  over  the  premiership 
from  the  greatest  English  advocate  of  the  Irish  cause. 
The  position  of  the  new  leader  was  very  simple.  In  effect, 
he  told  the  Irish  Nationalists  that  the  English  party  he 
was  about  to  lead  had  done  its  best  for  them.  They  must 
now  regard  themselves  as  partners  in  the  United  King- 
dom, with  the  British  as  the  predominant  partner.  Until 
the  predominant  partner  could  be  brought  to  take  the 
Irish  view  of  the  partnership,  the  relations  between  them 
must  remain  substantially  as  they  were.  And  not  only 
must  the  concession  of  Home  Rule  await  the  conversion 
of  the  British  electorate,  but  before  the  demand  could  be 
effectively  preferred,  another  leader  must  rise  up  among 
the  Irish  ;  and  he,  for  all  Lord  Rosebery  knew,  was  at  the 
moment  being  wheeled  in  a  perambulator.  This  appa- 
rently cynical  avowal  of  the  new  premier's  own  attitude 
towards  Home  Rule  accurately  stated  the  facts  of  the 
situation,  and  fairly  reflected  the  mind  of  the  British 
electorate,  after  Irish  obstruction  had  given  them  an 


THE    DAWN    OF    THE    PRACTICAL.  5 

opportunity  of  studying  the  bearing  of  the  Irish  Question 
on  English  politics. 

If  the  logic  of  events  was  thus  making  for  the 
removal  of  Home  Rule  from  the  region  of  practical 
politics  in  England,  an  even  more  momentous  change 
was  taking  place  in  Ireland  Whilst  the  Home  Rule 
controversy  was  at  its  height  in  the  'eighties  and  early 
'nineties,  some  Irish  grievances  were  incidentally  dealt 
with — not  always  under  the  best  impulses  or  in  the  best 
way.  The  concentration  of  all  the  available  thought 
and  energy  of  Irish  public  men  upon  an  appeal 
to  the  passions  and  prejudices  of  English  parties  had 
led  to  the  further  postponement  of  all  Irish  endeavour 
to  deal  rationally  and  practically  with  her  own  problems 
at  home.  But  during  the  welter  of  contention  which 
prevailed  after  the  fall  of  Parnell,  there  grew  up  in 
Ireland  a  wholly  new  spirit,  born  of  the  bitter  lesson 
which  was  at  last  being  learned.  The  Irish  still 
clung  undaunted  to  their  political  ideal,  but  its  pur- 
suit to  the  exclusion  of  all  other  national  aims 
had  received  a  wholesome  check.  Thought  upon  the 
problems  of  national  progress  broadened  and  deepened, 
in  a  manner  little  understood  by  those  who  knew 
Ireland  from  without,  and,  indeed,  by  many  of  those 
accounted  wise  among  the  observers  from  within.  Was 
the  realisation  of  a  distinctive  national  existence,  many 
began  to  ask  themselves,  to  be  for  ever  dependent 
upon  the  fortunes  of  a  political  campaign?  In  any 
scheme  of  a  reconstructed  national  life  to  which  the 


O  THE    ENGLISH    MISUNDERSTANDING. 

Irish  would  give  of  their  best,  there  must  be  distinctive- 
ness — that  much  every  man  who  is  in  touch  with  Irish 
life  is  fully  aware  of — but  the  question  of  existence  must 
not  be  altogether  ignored.  At  the  rate  the  people  were 
leaving  the  sinking  ship,  the  Irish  Question  would  be 
settled  in  the  not  distant  future  by  the  disappearance  of 
the  Irish.  Had  we  not  better  look  around  and  see  how 
other  countries  with  more  or  less  analogous  conditions 
fared  ?  Could  we  not — Unionists  and  Nationalists  alike 
— do  something  towards  material  progress  without 
abandoning  our  ideals?  Could  we  not  learn  something 
from  a  study  of  what  our  people  were  doing  abroad? 
One  seemed  to  hear  the  voice  of  Bishop  Berkeley, 
the  biting  pertinence  of  whose  Queries  is  ever  fresh, 
asking  from  the  grave  in  which  he  had  been  laid  to  rest 
nearly  a  century  and  a  half  ago  '  whether  it  would  not  be 
more  reasonable  to  mend  our  state  than  complain  of  it ; 
and  how  far  this  may  be  in  our  own  power  ?  ' 

These  questionings,  though  not  generally  heard  on 
the  platform  or  even  in  the  street,  were  none  the  less 
working  in  the  depths  of  the  Irish  mind,  and  found 
expression  not  so  much  in  words  as  in  deeds.  Yet 
though  the  downfall  of  Parnell  released  many  minds  from 
the  obsession  of  politics,  the  influence  of  that  event  was 
of  a  negative  character,  and  it  took  time  to  produce  a 
beneficial  effect.  That  fruitful  last  decade  of  the 
nineteenth  century  saw  the  foundation  of  what  will 
some  day  be  recognised  as  a  new  philosophy  of  Irish 
progress.  Certain  new  principles  were  then  promul- 


THE    MUTUAL    MISUNDERSTANDING.  7 

gated  in  Ireland,  and  gradually  found  acceptance ;  and 
upon  those  principles  a  new  movement  was  built.  It  is 
partly,  indeed,  to  expound  and  justify  some,  at  any  rate, 
of  the  principles  and  to  give  an  intelligible  account  of  the 
practical  achievement  and  future  possibilities  of  this 
movement  that  I  write  these  pages. 

For  English  readers,  to  whom  this  introductory 
chapter  is  chiefly  addressed,  I  may  here  reiterate  the 
opinion,  which  I  have  always  held  and  often  expressed, 
that  there  is  no  real  conflict  of  interest  between  the  two 
peoples  and  the  two  countries,  and  that  the  mutual  mis- 
understanding which  we  may  now  hope  to  see  removed 
is  due  to  a  wide  difference  of  temperament  and  mental 
outlook.  The  English  mind  has  never  understood  the 
Irish  mind — least  of  all  during  the  period  of  the  '  Union 
of  Hearts.'  It  is  equally  true  that  the  Irish  have 
largely  misunderstood  both  the  English  character  and 
their  own  responsibility.  The  result  has  been  that  their 
leaders,  despite  the  brilliant  capacity  they  have  shown 
in  presenting  the  unhappy  case  of  their  country  to  the 
rest  of  the  world,  have  rarely  presented  it  in  the  right 
way  to  the  English  people.  There  have  been  many 
occasions  during  the  last  quarter  of  a  century  when  a 
calm,  well-reasoned  statement  of  the  economic  dis- 
advantages under  which  Ireland  labours  would,  I  am 
convinced,  have  successfully  appealed  to  British  public 
opinion.  It  could  have  been  shown  that  the  development 
of  Ireland — the  development  not  only  of  the  resources  of 
her  soil  but  of  the  far  greater  wealth  which  lies  in  the 


8  THE    ENGLISH    MISUNDERSTANDING. 

latent  capacities  of  her  people — was  demanded  quite  as 
much  in  the  interest  of  one  country  as  in  that  of  the 
other. 

Here,  indeed,  is  an  untilled  field  for  those  to  whom  the 
Irish  Question  is  yet  a  living  one.  If  I  could  think  that 
each  country  fully  realised  its  own  responsibility  in  the 
matter,  if  I  could  think  that  the  long-continued  misunder- 
standing was  at  an  end,  nothing  would  induce  me  to 
trouble  the  waters  at  this  auspicious  hour,  when  a  better 
feeling  towards  Ireland  prevails  in  Great  Britain,  and 
when  the  Irish  people  are  fully  appreciative  of  the 
obviously  sincere  desire  of  England  to  be  generous  to 
Ireland.  But  an  examination  of  the  events  upon  which 
the  prevailing  optimism  is  based  will  show  that,  un- 
happily, misunderstanding,  though  of  another  sort,  still 
exists,  and  that  Ireland  is  as  much  as  ever  a  riddle  to 
the  English  mind. 

Now  this  new  optimism  in  the  English  view  of  Ireland 
seems  to  be  based,  not  upon  a  recognition  of  the  develop- 
ment of  what  I  have  ventured  to  dignify  with  the  title  of 
a  new  philosophy  of  Irish  progress,  but  upon  a  belief 
that  the  spirit  of  moderation  and  conciliation  displayed 
by  so  many  Irishmen  in  connection  with  the  Land  Act  is 
due  to  the  fact  that  my  incomprehensible  countrymen 
have,  under  a  sudden  emotion,  put  away  childish  things 
and  learned  to  behave  like  grown-up  Englishmen. 
Throughout  the  press  comments  upon  the  Dunraven 
Conference  and  in  public  speeches  both  inside  and  out- 
side Parliament  there  has  run  a  sense  that  a  sort  of 


IS    IT    A    TRANSFORMATION    SCENE?  9 

portent,  a  transformation  scene,  a  sudden  and  magical 
alteration  in  the  whole  spirit  and  outlook  of  the  Irish 
people,  has  come  to  pass. 

I  feel  some  hesitation  in  asking  the  reader  to 
believe  that  a  great  and  lasting  revolution  in  Irish 
thought  has  been  brought  about  in  such  a  moment 
in  the  life  of  a  people  as  twelve  short  years.  But  a 
lesser  number  of  months  seemed  to  the  English  mind 
adequate  for  the  accomplishment  of  the  change.  And 
what  a  change  it  was  that  they  conceived!  To  them, 
less  than  a  year  ago,  the  Irish  Question  was  not  merely 
unsolved,  but  in  its  essential  features  appeared  un- 
altered. After  seven  centuries  of  experimental  state- 
craft— so  varied  that  the  English  could  not  believe  any 
expedient  had  yet  to  be  tried — the  vast  majority  of  the 
Irish  people  regarded  the  Government  as  alien,  disputed 
the  validity  of  its  laws,  and  felt  no  responsibility  for 
administration,  no  respect  for  the  legislature,  or  for  those 
who  executed  its  decrees.  And  this  in  a  country  forming 
an  integral  part  of  the  United  Kingdom,  where  the  funda- 
mental basis  of  government  is  assumed  to  be  the  consent 
of  the  governed !  Nor  were  any  hopes  entertained  that 
the  cloud  would  quickly  pass.  During  the  Boer  war  the 
prophets  of  evil,  in  predicting  the  calamity  which  was  to 
fall  upon  the  British  Empire,  took  as  their  text  the  failure 
of  English  government  in  Ireland.  When  they  wanted 
to  paint  in  the  darkest  colours  the  coming  heritage  of 
woe,  they  wrote  upon  the  wall,  '  Another  Ireland  in 
South  Africa ' ;  and  if  any  exception  was  taken  to  the 


IO  THE    ENGLISH    MISUNDERSTANDING. 

appropriateness  of  the  phrase,  it  was  certainly  not  on  the 
ground  that  Ireland  had  ceased  to  be  a  warning  to 
British  statesmen. 

I  believe,  quite  as  strongly  as  the  most  optimistic 
Englishman,  that  there  has  been  a  great  change  from 
this  state  of  things  in  Irish  sentiment,  and  my  explana- 
tion of  that  change,  if  less  dramatic  than  the  transforma- 
tion theory,  affords  more  solid  ground  for  optimism. 
This  change  in  the  sentiment  of  Irishmen  towards 
England  is  due,  not  to  a  sudden  emotion  of  the  incompre- 
hensible Celt,  but  really  to  the  opinion — rapidly  growing 
for  the  last  dozen  years — that  great  as  is  the  responsi- 
bility of  England  for  the  state  of  Ireland,  still  greater  is 
the  responsibility  of  Irishmen.  The  conviction  has  been 
more  and  more  borne  in  upon  the  Irish  mind  that  the 
most  important  part  of  the  work  of  regenerating  Ireland 
must  necessarily  be  done  by  Irishmen  in  Ireland.  The 
result  has  been  that  many  Irishmen,  both  Unionists  and 
Nationalists,  without  in  any  way  abandoning  their 
opposition  to,  or  support  of,  the  attempt  to  solve  the 
political  problem  from  without,  have  been  trying — not 
without  success — to  solve  some  part  of  the  Irish 
Question  from  within.  The  Report  of  the  Recess 
Committee,  on  which  I  shall  dwell  later,  was  the  first 
great  fruit  of  this  movement,  and  the  Dunraven  Treaty, 
which  paved  the  way  for  Mr.  Wyndham's  Land  Act,  was 
a  further  fruit,  and  not  the  result  of  an  inexplicable 
transformation  scene. 

The  reason  why  I  dwell  on  the  true  nature  of  the 


THE  NATURE  OF  THE  CHANGE.  II 

undoubted  change  in  the  Irish  situation  is  not  in  order 
to  exaggerate  the  importance  of  the  part  played  by 
the  new  movement  in  bringing  it  about,  nor  to  detract 
from  the  importance  of  Parliamentary  action,  but  because 
a  mistaken  view  of  the  change  would  inevitably  postpone 
the  firm  establishment  of  an  improved  mutual  under- 
standing between  the  two  countries,  which  I  regard  as 
an  essential  of  Irish  progress.  I  confess  that  my  appre- 
hension of  a  new  misunderstanding  was  aroused  by 
the  debates  on  the  Land  Bill  in  the  House  of 
Commons.  As  regards  the  spirit  of  conciliation  and 
moderation  displayed  by  the  Irish,  and  the  sincere 
desire  exhibited  by  the  British  to  heal  the  chief  Irish 
economic  sore,  the  speeches  were,  if  not  epoch-making, 
at  any  rate  epoch-marking ;  but  they  showed  little  sense 
of  perspective  or  proportion  in  viewing  the  Irish  Question, 
and  little  grasp  or  appreciation  of  the  large  social  and 
economic  problems  which  the  Land  Act  will  bring  to  the 
front.  Temporary  phenomena  and  legislative  machinery 
have  been  endowed  with  an  importance  they  do  not 
possess,  and  miracles,  it  is  supposed,  are  about  to  be 
worked  in  Ireland  by  processes  which,  whatever  rich 
good  may  be  in  them,  have  never  worked  miracles, 
though  they  have  not  seldom  excited  very  similar  enthu- 
siasms in  the  economic  history  of  other  European 
lands. 

I  agree,  then,  with  most  Englishmen  in  thinking, 
though  for  a  different  reason,  that  the  passing  of  the 
Land  Act  marked  a  new  era  in  Ireland.  They  regard  it 


12  THE    ENGLISH    MISUNDERSTANDING. 

as  productive  of,  or  co-incident  in  time  with,  the  dawn  of 
the  practical  in  Ireland  I  antedate  that  event  by  some 
dozen  years,  and  regard  the  Land  Act  rather  as  marking 
a  new  era,  because  it  removes  the  great  obstacle  which 
obscured  the  dawn  of  the  practical  for  so  many,  and 
hindered  it  for  all. 

Whatever  may  have  been  the  expectations  upon  which 
this  great  measure  was  based,  I,  in  common  with  most  Irish 
observers,  watched  its  progress  with  unfeigned  delight. 
The  vast  majority  regarded  the  hundred  millions  of 
credit  and  the  twelve  millions  of  '  bonus  '  as  a  generous 
concession  to  Ireland  ;  and  I  sympathised  with  those  who 
deprecated  the  mischievous  suggestion,  not  infrequently 
heard  in  English  political  circles,  that  this  munificence 
was  the  '  price  of  peace.'  On  one  point  all  were  agreed  : 
the  Bill  could  never  have  become  law  had  not  Mr. 
Wyndham  handled  the  Parliamentary  situation  with 
masterly  tact,  temper,  and  ability.  To  him  is  chiefly  due 
the  credit  for  the  fact  that  the  Land  Question,  in 
its  old  form  at  any  rate,  no  longer  blocks  the  way, 
and  that  the  large  problems  which  remain  to  be 
solved,  and,  above  all,  the  spirit  in  which  they  will  have 
to  be  approached  by  those  who  wish  the  existing  peace 
to  be  the  forerunner  of  material  and  social  progress,  can 
be  freely  and  frankly  discussed 

It  is  true,  as  I  have  said,  that  Ireland  is  becoming  more 
and  more  practical,  and  that  England  is  becoming  more 
anxious  than  ever  to  do  her  substantial  justice.  But  still 
the  manner  of  the  doing  will  continue  to  be  as  important 


THE     ANTI-ENGLISH     SENTIMENT.  13 

as  the  thing  which  is  done.  Of  the  Irish  qualities  none  is 
stronger  than  the  craving  to  be  understood.  If  the 
English  had  only  known  this  secret  we  should  have  been 
the  most  easily  governed  people  in  the  world.  For  it 
is  characteristic  of  the  conduct  of  our  most  important 
affairs  that  we  care  too  little  about  the  substance  and 
too  much  about  the  shadow.  It  is  for  this  reason  that 
1  have  discussed  the  real  nature  of  one  phase  of  Irish 
sentiment  which  has  been  largely  misunderstood,  and  it 
is  for  the  same  reason  that  I  propose  to  preface  my 
examination  of  the  Irish  Question  with  some  reference 
to  the  cause  and  nature  of  the  anti-English  sentiment, 
for  the  long  continuance  of  which  I  can  find  no  other 
explanation  than  the  failure  of  the  English  to  see  into 
the  Irish  mind. 

I  am  well  acquainted  with  this  sentiment  because, 
in  my  practical  work  in  Ireland,  it  has  ever  been 
the  main  current  of  the  stream  against  which  I 
have  had  to  swim.  Years  spent  in  the  United  States 
had  made  me  familiar  with  its  full  and  true  significance, 
for  there  it  can  be  studied  in  an  atmosphere  not 
dominated  by  any  present  Irish  controversies  or  struggles. 
I  have  found  this  sentiment  of  hatred  deeply  rooted  in 
the  minds  of  Irishmen  who  had  themselves  never  known 
Ireland,  who  had  no  connection,  other  than  a  sentimental 
one,  with  that  country,  who  were  living  quiet  business 
lives  in  the  United  States,  but  who  were  ever  ready  to 
testify  with  their  dollars,  and  genuinely  believed  that 
they  only  lacked  opportunity  to  demonstrate  in  a  more 


14  THE    ENGLISH    MISUNDERSTANDING. 

enterprising  way,  their  "  undying  hatred  of  the  English 
name."* 

With  such  men  I  have  reasoned,  and  sometimes 
not  in  vain,  upon  the  injustice  and  unreason  of  their 
attitude.  I  have  not  attempted  to  controvert  the  main 
facts  of  Ireland's  grievances,  which  they  frequently  told 
me  they  had  gleaned  from  Froude  and  Lecky.  I  used  to 
deprecate  the  unqualified  application  of  modern  standards 
to  the  policies  of  other  days,  and  to  protest  against  the 
injustice  of  punishing  one  set  of  persons  for  the  misdoings 
of  another  set  of  persons,  who  have  long  since  passed 
beyond  the  reach  of  any  earthly  tribunal.  I  have  given 
them  my  reasons  for  believing  that,  even  if  such  a  course 
were  morally  admissible,  the  wit  of  man  could  not  devise 
any  means  of  inflicting  a  blow  upon  England  which 
would  not  react  injuriously  with  tenfold  force  upon 
Ireland.  I  have  gone  on  to  show  that  the  sentiment 
itself,  largely  the  accident  of  untoward  circumstances, 
is  alien  to  the  character  and  temperament  of  the 
Irish  people.  In  short,  I  have  urged  that  the  policy  of 
revenge  is  un-Christian  and  unintelligent,  and,  that,  as 
the  Irish  people  are  neither  irreligious  nor  stupid,  it  is 
un-Irish.  I  well  remember  taking  up  this  position  in 
conversation  with  some  very  advanced  Irish-Americans 

*  My  own  experience  confirms  Mr.  Lecky's  view  of  the  chief  cause 
of  this  extraordinary  feeling.  "  It  is  probable,"  he  writes,  "  that  the 
true  source  of  the  savage  hatred  of  England  that  animates  great  bodies 
of  Irishmen  on  either  side  of  the  Atlantic  has  very  little  real  connection 
with  the  penal  laws,  or  the  rebellion,  or  the  Union.  It  is  far  more  due 
to  the  great  clearances  and  the  vast  unaided  emigrations  that  followed 
the  famine." — Leaders  of  Public  Opinion  in  Ireland,  Vol.  II.,  p.  177. 


THE    FORCE    OF    SENTIMENT.  15 

in  the  Far  West  and  the  reply  which  one  of  them  made. 
"  Wai,"  said  my  half-persuaded  friend,  "  mebbe  you're 
right.  I  have  two  sons,  whom  I  have  raised  in  the 
expectation  that  they  will  one  day  strike  a  blow  for  old 
Ireland.  Mebbe  they  won't.  I'm  too  old  to  change." 

I  have  chosen  this  incident  from  a  long  series  of 
similar  reminiscences  of  my  study  of  Irish  life,  to  illus- 
trate an  attitude  of  mind,  the  historical  explanation  of 
which  would  seem  to  the  practical  Englishman  as 
academic  as  a  psychological  exposition  of  the  effect  of 
a  red  rag  upon  a  bull.  The  English  are  not  much  to  be 
blamed  for  resenting  the  survival  of  the  feeling,  but 
it  appears  to  me  to  argue  a  singular  lack  of  political 
imagination  that  they  should  still  fail  to  appreciate  the 
reality,  the  significance,  and  the  abiding  force  of  a 
sentiment  which  has  so  far  successfully  resisted  the 
influence  of  those  governing  qualities  which  have  played 
a  foremost  part  in  the  civilisation  of  the  modern  world. 
The  Spectator  some  time  ago  came  out  bluntly  with  a 
truth  which  an  Irishman  may,  I  presume,  quote  without 
offence  from  so  high  an  English  authority : — "  The  one 
blunder  of  average  Englishmen  in  considering  foreign 
questions  is  that  with  white  men  they  make  too  little 
allowance  for  sentiment,  and  with  coloured  men  they 
make  none  at  all."*  I  am  afraid  it  must  be  added  that 
'  average  Englishmen  '  make  exactly  the  same  blunder  in 
under-estimating  the  force  of  sentiment  when  considering 
Irish  questions,  with  the  not  unnatural  consequence 

*  Spectator,  6th  September,  1902. 


l6  THE    ENGLISH    MISUNDERSTANDING. 

that  the  Irish  regard  them  as  foreigners,  and  that,  as 
those  foreigners  happen  to  govern  them,  the  sentiment 
of  nationality  becomes  political  and  anti-English. 

There  is  one  reason  why  this  sentiment  is  not  allowed 
to  die  which  should  always  be  remembered  by  those  who 
wish  to  grasp  the  inner  workings  of  the   Irish  mind. 
Briefly  stated,  the  view  prevails  in  Ireland  that  in  dealing 
with  questions  affecting  our    material    well-being,   the 
government  of  our  country  by  the  English  was,  in  the 
past,    characterised    by   an    unenlightened    self-interest. 
Thoughtful  Englishmen  admit  this  charge,  but  they  say 
that  the  past  referred  to  is  beyond  living  memory  and 
should  now  be  buried.     The  Irish  mind  replies  that  the 
life  of  a  nation  is  not  to  be  measured  by  the  life  of 
individuals,  and  that  a  wrong  inflicted  by  a  Government 
upon  a  community  entitles  those  who  inherit  the  con- 
sequences of  the  injury  to  claim  reparation  at  the  hands 
of  those  who  inherit  the  government.     With  this  attitude 
on  the  part  of  the  Irish  mind  I  am  not  only  most  heartily 
in  sympathy,  but  I  find  every  Englishman  who  under- 
stands the  situation  equally  so.     In  the  later  portions  of 
this  book  it  will  be  shown  that  practical  recognition,  in 
no  small  measure,  has  been  given  by  England  to  the 
righteousness  of  this  part  of  the  Irish  case,  and  that  if 
the  effect  thus  produced  has  not  found  as  full  an  outward 
expression  as  might  have  been  expected,  the  Irish  people 
have  at  any  rate  responded  to  the  new  treatment  in  a 
manner  which  must,  in  no  distant  future,  bring  about  a 
better  understanding. 


THE   COMMERCIAL   RESTRICTIONS.  I/ 

The  only  historical  causes  of  our  present  discontents  to 
which  I  need  now  particularly  refer,  are  the  commercial 
restrictions  and  the  land  system  of  the  past,  which  stand 
out  from  the  long  list  of  Irish  grievances  as  those  for 
which  their  victims  were  the  least  responsible.  No  one 
can  be  more  anxious  than  I  am  tiiat  we  should  cease  to 
be  for  ever  seeking  in  the  past  excuses  for  our  present 
failures.  But  it  is  essential  to  a  correct  estimation  of 
Irish  agricultural  and  industrial  possibilities  that  we 
should  notice  the  true  bearings  of  these  historical 
grievances  upon  existing  conditions. 

In  this  connection  there  arises  a  question  which  is 
very  pertinent  to  the  present  inquiry  and  which  must 
therefore  be  considered.  I  have  seen  it  argued  by 
English  economists  that  the  industrial  revolution  which 
took  place  at  the  end  of  the  eighteenth  and  commence- 
ment of  the  nineteenth  century  would  in  any  case  have 
destroyed,  by  force  of  open  competition,  industries  which, 
it  is  admitted,  were  previously  legislated  away.  They 
point  out  that  the  change  from  the  order  of  small 
scattered  home  industries  to  the  factory  system  would 
have  suited  neither  the  temperament  nor  the  indus- 
trial habits  of  the  Irish.  They  tell  us  that  with 
the  industrial  revolution  the  juxtaposition  of  coal 
and  iron  became  an  all-important  factor  in  the  problem, 
and  they  recall  how  the  north  and  west  of  England 
captured  the  industrial  supremacy  from  the  south 
and  east.  Incidentally  they  point  out  that  the  people 
of  the  English  counties  which  suffered  by  these 


l8  THE    ENGLISH    MISUNDERSTANDING. 

economic  causes  braced  themselves  to  meet  the  changes, 
and  it  is  suggested  that  if  the  people  of  Ireland  had 
shown  the  same  resourcefulness,  they,  too,  might  have 
weathered  the  storm.  And,  finally,  we  are  reminded  that 
England,  by  her  stupid  Irish  policy,  punished  her  own 
supporters,  and  even  herself,  quite  as  much  as  the  '  mere 
Irish.' 

Much  of  this  may  be  true,  but  this  line  of  argument 
only  shows  that  these  English  economists  do  not 
thoroughly  understand  the  real  grievance  which  the  Irish 
people  still  harbour  against  the  English  for  past  mis- 
government.  The  commercial  restraints  sapped  the 
industrial  instinct  of  the  people — an  evil  which  was  in- 
tensified in  the  case  of  the  Catholics  by  the  working  of 
the  penal  laws.  When  these  legislative  restrictions  upon 
industry  had  been  removed,  the  Irish,  not  being  trained 
in  industrial  habits,  were  unable  to  adapt  themselves  to 
the  altered  conditions  produced  by  the  Industrial  Revo- 
lution, as  did  the  people  in  England.  And  as  for  com- 
merce, the  restrictions,  which  had  as  little  moral  sanction 
as  the  penal  laws,  and  which  invested  smuggling  with  a 
halo  of  patriotism,  had  prevented  the  development  of 
commercial  morality,  without  which  there  can  be  no 
commercial  success.  It  is  not,  therefore,  the  destruction 
of  specific  industries,  or  even  the  sweeping  of  our  com- 
merce from  the  seas,  about  which  most  complaint  is  now 
made.  The  real  grievance  lies  in  the  fact  that  something 
had  been  taken  from  our  industrial  character  which 
could  not  be  remedied  by  the  mere  removal  of  the 


THE    CLAIM     FOR     REPARATION.  IQ 

restrictions.  Not  only  had  the  tree  been  stripped,  but 
the  roots  had  been  destroyed.  If  ever  there  was  a  case 
where  President  Kruger's  '  moral  and  intellectual  dam- 
ages '  might  fairly  be  claimed  by  an  injured  nation,  it  is 
to  be  found  in  the  industrial  and  commercial  history  of 
Ireland  during  the  period  of  the  building  up  of  England's 
commercial  supremacy. 

The  English  mind  quite  failed,  until  the  very  end 
of  the  nineteenth  century,  to  grasp  the  real  needs 
of  the  situation  which  had  thus  been  created  in  Ireland. 
The  industrial  revolution,  as  I  have  indicated,  found  the 
Irish  people  fettered  by  an  industrial  past  for  which  they 
themselves  were  not  chiefly  responsible.  They  needed 
exceptional  treatment  of  a  kind  which  was  not  conceded. 
They  were,  instead,  still  further  handicapped,  towards 
the  middle  of  the  century,  by  the  adoption  of  Free 
Trade,  which  was  imposed  upon  them  when  they  were  not 
only  unable  to  take  advantage  of  its  benefits,  but  were  so 
situated  as  to  suffer  to  the  utmost  from  its  inconveniences. 

I  am  convinced  that  the  long-continued  misunder- 
standing of  the  conditions  and  needs  of  this  country,  the 
withholding,  for  so  long,  of  necessary  concessions,  was 
due  not  to  heartlessness  or  contempt  so  much  as  to  a 
lack  of  imagination,  a  defect  for  which  the  English 
cannot  be  blamed.  They  had,  to  use  a  modern  term, 
'  standardised  '  their  qualities,  and  it  was  impossible  to 
get  out  of  their  minds  the  belief  that  a  divergence,  in 
another  race,  from  their  standard  of  character  was 
synonymous  with  inferiority.  This  attitude  is  not  yet 


20  THE    ENGLISH    MISUNDERSTANDING. 

a  thing  of  the  past,  but  it  is  fast  disappearing ;  and 
thoughtful  Englishmen  now  recognise  the  righteousness 
of  the  claim  for  reparation,  and  are  willing  liberally  to 
apply  any  stimulus  to  our  industrial  life  which  may  place 
us,  so  far  as  this  is  possible,  on  the  level  we  might  have 
occupied  had  we  been  left  to  work  out  our  own  economic 
salvation.  Unfortunately,  all  Englishmen  are  not 
thoughtful,  and  hence  I  emphasise  the  fact  that  England 
is  largely  responsible  for  our  industrial  defects,  and  must 
not  hesitate  to  face  the  financial  results  of  that  respon- 
sibility. 

When  we  pass  from  the  domain  of  commerce,  where 
we  have  seen  that  circumstances  reduced  to  the 
minimum  Ireland's  participation  in  the  industrial  supre- 
macy of  England,  and  come  to  examine  the  historical 
development  of  Irish  agrarian  life,  we  find  a  situation 
closely  related  to,  and  indeed,  largely  created  by,  that 
which  we  have  been  discussing.  '  Debarred  from  every 
other  trade  and  industry/  wrote  the  late  Lord  Dufferin, 
'  the  entire  nation  flung  itself  back  upon  the  land,  with 
as  fatal  an  impulse  as  when  a  river,  whose  current  is 
suddenly  impeded,  rolls  back  and  drowns  the  valley 
which  it  once  fertilised.'  The  energies,  the  hopes,  nay, 
the  very  existence  of  the  race,  became  thus  intimately 
bound  up  with  agriculture.  This  industry,  their  last  re- 
sort and  sole  dependence,  had  to  be  conducted  by  a 
people  who  in  every  other  avocation  had  been  unfitted 
for  material  success.  And  this  industry,  too,  was 
crippled  from  without,  for  a  system  of  land  tenure  had 


THE    BEGINNING     OF    THE     LAND     WAR.  21 

been  imposed  upon  Ireland  that  was  probably  the  most 
effective  that  could  have  been  devised  for  the  purpose 
of  perpetuating-  and  accentuating  every  disability  to 
which  other  causes  had  given  rise. 

The  Irish  land  system  suffered  from  the  same  ills  as 
we  all  know  the  political  institutions  to  have  suffered 
from — a  partial  and  intermittent  conquest.  Land  hold- 
ing in  Ireland  remained  largely  based  on  the  tribal  system 
of  open  fields  and  common  tillage  for  nearly  eight  hundred 
years  after  collective  ownership  had  begun  to  pass  away 
in  England.  The  sudden  imposition  upon  the  Irish,  early 
in  the  seventeenth  century,  of  a  land  system  which  was  no 
part  of  the  natural  development  of  the  country,  ignored, 
though  it  could  not  destroy,  the  old  feeling  of  com- 
munistic ownership,  and,  when  this  vanished,  it  did  not 
vanish  as  it  did  in  countries  where  more  normal  condi- 
tions prevailed.  It  did  not  perish  like  a  piece  of  outworn 
tissue  pushed  off  by  a  new  growth  from  within :  on  the 
contrary,  it  was  arbitrarily  cut  away  while  yet  fresh  and 
vital,  with  the  result  that  where  a  bud  should  have  been 
there  was  a  scar. 

This  sudden  change  in  the  system  of  land-holding  was 
followed  by  a  century  of  reprisals  and  confiscations,  and 
what  war  began  the  law  continued.  The  Celtic  race,  for 
the  most  part  impoverished  in  mind  and  estate  by  the 
penal  laws,  became  rooted  to  the  soil,  for,  as  we 
have  seen,  they  had,  on  account  of  the  repression  of 
industries,  no  alternative  occupation,  and  so  became,  in 
fact,  if  not  in  law,  adscripti  glebae.  Upon  the  pro- 


22  THE    ENGLISH    MISUNDERSTANDING. 

ductiveness  of  their  labour  the  landlord  depended  for 
his  revenues,  but  he  did  little  to  develop  that  productive- 
ness, and  the  system  which  was  introduced  did  every- 
thing to  lessen  it*  The  wound  produced  by  the  original 
confiscation  of  the  land  was  kept  from  healing  by  the 
way  in  which  the  tenants'  improvements  were  somewhat 
similarly  treated.  I  do  not  mean  that  they  were  system- 
atically confiscated — the  Devon  and  Bessborough  Com- 
missions, as  well  as  Gladstone,  bore  witness  to  the 
contrary — but  the  right  and  the  occasional  exercise  of  the 
right  to  confiscate  operated  in  the  same  way.  In  the  Irish 
tenant's  mind  dispossession  was  nine-tenths  of  the  law. 

An  enlightened  system  of  land  tenure  might  have 
made  prosperity  and  contentment  the  lot  of  the 
native  race,  and,  perhaps,  have  rendered  possible  such  a 
solution  of  the  Irish  problem  as  was  effected  between 
England  and  Scotland  two  centunes  ago.  What  was 
chiefly  required  for  agrarian  peace  was  a  recognition  of 
that  sense  of  partnership  in  the  land — a  relic  of  the 
tribal  days — to  which  the  Irish  mind  tenaciously 
adhered  But,  like  most  English  concessions,  it  was  not 
granted  until  too  late,  and  then  granted  in  the  wrong 
way.  The  natural  result  was  that,  when  at  last  the  re- 
cognition of  partnership  was  enacted,  it  became  a 
lever  for  a  demand  for  complete  ownership.  But  this 
was  the  aftermath,  for  in  the  meantime,  from  the  seed 

*  The  title  to  the  greater  part  of  Irish  land  is  based  on  confisca- 
tion. This  is  true  of  many  other  countries,  but  what  was  exceptional 
in  the  Irish  confiscations  was  that  the  grantees  for  the  most  part  did 
not  settle  on  the  lands  themselves,  drive  away  the  dispossessed,  or 
come  to  any  rational  working  agreement  with  them. 


TENANT-RIGHT    AND    ENGLISH    LAW.  23 

sown  by  English  blundering,  Ireland — native  population 
and  English  garrison  alike — had  reaped  the  awful  har- 
vest of  the  Irish  famine,  which  was  followed  by  a  long 
dark  winter  of  discontent.  Upon  the  England  that 
sowed  the  wind  there  was  visited  a  whirlwind  of  hos- 
tility from  the  Irish  race  scattered  throughout  the  globe. 
It  would  be  altogether  outside  the  scope  or  purpose  of 
this  chapter  to  present  a  complete  history  of  the 
remedial  legislation  applied  to  Irish  land  tenure.  That 
history,  however,  illustrates  so  vividly  the  English 
misunderstanding,  that  a  short  survey  of  one  phase 
of  it  may  help  to  point  the  moral.  The  Eng- 
lish intellect  at  long  last  began  to  grasp  the 
agrarian,  though  not  the  industrial  side  of  the 
wrong  that  had  been  done  to  Ireland,  and  the  English 
conscience  was  moved ;  there  came  the  era  of  conces- 
sions to  which  I  have  alluded,  and  for  over  a  quarter  of 
a  century  attempts,  often  generous,  if  not  very  dis- 
criminating, were  made  to  deal  with  the  situation. 
In  1870,  dispossession  was  made  very  costly  to  the 
landlord.  In  1881,  it  became  impossible,  except  on 
the  tenant's  default,  and  the  partnership  was  fully 
recognised,  the  tenant's  share  being  made  his  own  to  sell, 
and  being  preserved  for  his  profitable  use  by  a  right  to 
have  the  rent  payable  to  his  sleeping  partner,  the  land- 
lord, fixed  by  a  judicial  tribunal.  These  rights  were  the 
famous  three  F's — fixity  of  tenure,  free  sale,  and  fair 
rent— -of  the  Magna  Charta  of  the  Irish  peasant.  If 
these  concessions  had  only  been  made  in  time, 


24  THE    ENGLISH    MISUNDERSTANDING. 

they  would  probably  have  led  to  a  strengthening 
of  the  economic  position  and  character  of  the  Irish 
tenantry,  which  would  have  enabled  them  to  take  full 
advantage  of  their  new  status,  and  meet  any  condition 
which  might  arise  ;  and  it  is  just  possible  that  the  system 
might  have  worked  well,  even  at  the  eleventh  hour, 
had  it  been  launched  on  a  rising  market.  Unhappily,  it 
fell  upon  evil  days.  The  prosperous  times  of  Irish  agri- 
culture, which  culminated  a  few  years  before  the  passing 
of  the  '  Tenants'  Charter,'  were  followed  by  a  serious 
reaction,  the  result  of  causes  which,  though  long 
operative,  were  only  then  beginning  to  make  them- 
selves felt,  and  some  of  which,  though  the  fact  was  not 
then  generally  recognised,  were  destined  to  be  of  no 
temporary  character.  The  agricultural  depression  which 
has  continued  ever  since  was  due,  as  is  now  well  known, 
to  foreign  competition,  or,  in  other  words,  to  the  open- 
ing up  of  vast  areas  in  the  Far  West  to  the  plough  and 
herd,  and  the  bringing  of  the  products  of  distant 
countries  into  the  home  markets  in  ever-increasing 
quantity,  in  ever  fresher  condition,  and  at  an  ever- 
decreasing  cost  of  transportation.  Great  changes  were 
taking  place  in  the  market  which  the  Irish  farmer  sup- 
plied, and  no  two  men  could  agree  as  to  the  relative  in- 
fluence of  the  new  factors  of  the  problem,  or  as  to  their 
probable  duration. 

Whatever  may  be  said  in  disparagement  of  the  great 
experiment  commenced  in  1881,  there  can  be  no  doubt 
that  it  enormously  improved  the  legal  position  of  the 


THE    BREAKDOWN     OF     DUAL     OWNERSHIP.  25 

Irish  tenantry,  and  I,  for  one,  regard  it  as  a  necessary 
contribution  to  the  events  whose  logic  was  finally  to 
bring  about  the  abolition  of  dual  ownership.  But  what 
a  curious  instance  of  the  irony  of  fate  is  afforded  by 
this  genuine  attempt  to  heal  an  Irish  sore,  what  a  com- 
mentary it  is  upon  the  English  misunderstanding  of  the 
Irish  mind !  Mr.  Gladstone  found  the  land  system  intoler- 
able to  one  party ;  he  made  it  intolerable  to  the  other 
also.  For  half  a  century  laissez-faire  was  pedantically 
applied  to  Irish  agriculture,  then  suddenly  the  other  ex- 
treme was  adopted ;  nothing  was  left  alone,  and  political 
economy  was  sent  on  its  famous  planetary  excursion. 

When  Mr.  Gladstone  was  attempting  to  settle  the  land 
question  on  the  basis  of  dual  ownership,  the  seed  of  a 
new  kind  of  single  ownership — peasant  proprietorship — 
was  sown  through  the  influence  of  John  Bright.  The 
operations  of  the  land  purchase  clauses  in  the  Church 
Disestablishment  Act  of  1869,  and  the  Land  Acts  of 
1870  and  1 88 1,  were  enormously  extended  by  the  Land 
Purchase  Acts  introduced  by  the  Conservative  Party  in 
1885  and  in  1891,  and  the  success  which  attended  these 
Acts  accentuated  the  defects  and  sealed  the  fate  of  dual 
ownership,  which  all  parties  recently  united  to  destroy. 
In  other  words,  Parliament  has  been  undoing  a  genera- 
tion's legislative  work  upon  the  Irish  land  question. 

This  is  all  I  need  say  about  that  stage  of  the  Irish 
agrarian  situation  at  which  we  have  now  arrived.  What 
I  wish  my  readers  to  bear  in  mind  is  that  the  effect  of  a 
bad  system  of  land  tenure  upon  the  other  aspects  of  the 


26 


THE     ENGLISH    MISUNDERSTANDING. 


Irish  Question  reaches  much  further  back  than  the 
struggles,  agitations,  and  reforms  in  connection  with 
Irish  land  which  this  generation  has  witnessed.  The 
same  may  be  said  with  regard  to  the  other  economic 
grievances.  No  one  can  be  more  anxious  than  I  am  to 
fasten  the  mind  of  my  countrymen  upon  the  practical 
things  of  to-day,  and  to  wean  their  sad  souls  from  idle 
regrets  over  the  sorrows  of  the  past.  If  I  revive  these 
dead  issues,  it  is  because  I  have  learned  that  no  man  can 
move  the  Irish  mind  to  action  unless  he  can  see  its 
point  of  view,  which  is  largely  retrospective.  I  cannot 
ignore  the  fact  that  the  attitude  of  mind  which 
causes  the  Irish  people  to  put  too  much  faith  in 
legislative  cures  for  economic  ills  is  mainly  due  to  the 
belief  that  their  ancestors  were  the  victims  of  a  long 
series  of  laws  by  which  every  industry  that  might  have 
made  the  country  prosperous  was  jealously  repressed  or 
ruthlessly  destroyed.  Those  who  are  not  too  much 
appalled  by  the  quantity  to  examine  into  the  quality  of 
popular  oratory  in  Ireland  are  familiar  with  the  subordi- 
nation of  present  economic  issues  to  the  dreary 
reiteration  of  this  old  tale  of  woe.  Personally  I 
have  always  held  that  to  foster  resentment  in  respect 
of  these  old  wrongs  is  as  stupid  as  was  the  policy  which 
gave  them  birth  ;  and,  even  if  it  were  possible  to  distri- 
bute the  blame  among  our  ancestors,  I  am  sure  we  should 
do  ourselves  much  harm,  and  no  living  soul  any  good,  in 
the  reckoning.  In  my  view,  Anglo-Irish  history  is  for 
Englishmen  to  remember,  for  Irishmen  to  forget. 


PERSONALITY  AND  NATIONAL  TENDENCY.        2J 

I  may  now  conclude  my  appeal  to  outside  observers 
for  a  broader  and  more  philosophic  view  of  my  country 
and  my  countrymen  with  a  suggestion  born  of  my  own 
early  mistakes,  and  with  a  word  of  warning  which  is 
called  for  by  my  later  observation  of  the  mistakes  of 
others.  The  difficulty  of  the  outside  observer  in  under- 
standing the  Irish  Question  is,  no  doubt,  largely  due  to 
the  fact  that  those  in  intimate  touch  with  the  actual 
conditions  are  so  dominated  by  vehement  and  pas- 
sionate conviction  that  reason  is  not  only  at  a  discount 
but  is  fatal  to  the  acquisition  of  popular  influence.  Of 
course  the  power  of  knowledge  and  thought,  though 
kept  in  the  background,  is  not  really  eliminated.  But 
it  is  in  the  circumstances  not  unnatural  that  most  of 
us  should  fall  into  the  error  of  attributing  to  the 
influence  of  prominent  individuals  or  organisations 
the  events  and  conditions  which  the  superficial 
observer  regards  as  the  creation  of  the  hour,  but 
which  are  in  reality  the  outcome  of  a  slow  and  con- 
tinuous process  of  evolution.  I  remember  as  a  boy 
being  captivated  by  that  charming  corrective  to  this 
view  of  historical  development,  Buckle's  History  of 
Civilization,  which  in  recent  years  has  often  recurred  to 
my  mind,  despite  the  fact  that  many  of  his  theories  are 
now  somewhat  discredited.  Buckle,  if  I  remember  right, 
almost  eliminates  the  personal  factor  in  the  life  of 
nations.  According  to  his  theory,  it  would  not  have 
made  much  difference  to  modern  civilisation  if  Napoleon 
had  happened,  as  was  so  near  being  the  case,  to  be  born 


28  THE    ENGLISH    MISUNDERSTANDING. 

a  British  instead  of  a  French  subject.  It  would  also 
have  followed  that  if  O'Connell  had  limited  his  activities 
to  his  professional  work,  or  if  Parnell  had  chanced  to 
hate  Ireland  as  bitterly  as  he  hated  England,  we  should 
have  been,  politically,  very  much  where  we  are  to-day. 
The  student  of  Irish  affairs  should,  of  course,  avoid  the 
extreme  views  of  historical  causation ;  but  in  the  search 
for  the  truth  he  will,  I  think,  be  well  advised  to  attach 
less  significance  to  the  influence  of  prominent  personality 
than  is  the  practice  of  the  ordinary  observer  in  Ireland. 

The  warning  I  have  to  offer,  I  think,  will  be  justified  by 
a  reflection  upon  the  history  of  the  panaceas  which  we 
have  been  offered,  and  upon  our  present  state.  To  those 
of  my  British  readers  who  honestly  desire  to  understand 
the  Irish  Question,  I  would  say,  let  them  eschew  the 
sweeping  generalisations  by  which  Irish  intelligence  is 
commonly  outraged.  I  may  pass  by  the  explanation 
which  rests  upon  the  cheap  attribution  of  racial  inferiority 
with  the  simple  reply  that  our  inferior  race  has  much 
of  the  superior  blood  in  its  veins ;  yet  the  Irish  problem 
is  just  as  acute  in  districts  where  the  English  blood 
predominates  as  where  the  people  are  '  mere  Irish.' 
If  this  view  be  disputed,  the  matter  is  not  worth  arguing 
about,  because  we  cannot  be  born  again.  But  there 
are  three  other  common  explanations  of  the  Irish  diffi- 
culty, any  one  of  which  taken  by  itself  only  leads  away 
from  the  truth.  I  refer,  I  need  hardly  say,  to  the 
familiar  assertions  that  the  origin  of  the  evil  is  political, 
that  it  is  religious,  or  that  it  is  neither  one  nor  the 


A    HUMAN    PROBLEM.  2$ 

other,  but  economic.  In  Irish  history,  no  doubt,  we 
may  find,  under  any  of  these  heads,  cause  enough  for 
much  of  our  present  wrong-goings.  But  I  am 
profoundly  convinced  that  each  of  the  simple  explana- 
tions to  which  I  have  just  alluded — the  racial,  the 
political,  the  religious,  the  economic — is  based  upon 
reasoning  from  imperfect  knowledge  of  the  facts  of  Irish 
life.  The  cause  and  cure  of  Irish  ills  are  not  chiefly 
political,  broaden  or  narrow  our  conception  of  politics  as 
we  will ;  they  are  not  chiefly  religious,  whatever  be  the 
effect  of  Roman  Catholic  influence  upon  the  practical 
side  of  the  people's  life ;  they  are  not  chiefly  economic, 
be  the  actual  poverty  of  the  people  and  the  potential 
wealth  of  the  country  what  they  may.  The  Irish 
Question  is  a  broad  and  deeply  interesting  human 
problem  which  has  baffled  generation  after  generation  of 
a  great  and  virile  race,  who  complacently  attribute  their 
incapacity  to  master  it  to  Irish  perversity,  and  pass  on, 
leaving  it  unsolved  by  Anglo-Saxons,  and  therefore 
insoluble ! 


CHAPTER  II. 
THE  IRISH  QUESTION  IN  IRELAND. 

Whilst  attributing  the  long  continued  failure  of  Eng- 
lish rule  in  Ireland  largely  to  a  misunderstanding  of  the 
Irish  mind,  I  have  given  England — at  least  modern  Eng- 
land— credit  for  good  intentions  towards  us.  I  now  come 
to  the  case  of  the  misunderstood,  and  shall  from  hence- 
forth be  concerned  with  the  immeasurably  greater  re- 
sponsibility of  the  Irish  people  themselves  for  their  own 
welfare.  The  most  characteristic,  and  by  far  the  most 
hopeful  feature  of  the  change  in  the  Anglo-Irish  situa- 
tion which  took  place  in  the  last  decade  of  the  nineteenth 
century,  and  upon  the  meaning  of  which  I  dwelt  in  the 
preceding  chapter,  is  the  growing  sense  amongst  us  that 
the  English  misunderstanding  of  Ireland  is  of  far  less 
importance,  and  perhaps  less  inexcusable,  than  our  own 
misunderstanding  of  ourselves. 

When  I  first  came  into  practical  touch  with  the  extra- 
ordinarily complex  problems  of  Irish  life,  nothing  im- 
pressed me  so  much  as  the  universal  belief  among  my 
countrymen  that  Providence  had  endowed  them  with 
capacities  of  a  high  order,  and  their  country  with 
resources  of  unbounded  richness,  but  that  both 
the  capacities  and  the  resources  remained  undeveloped 


IN     A    FOOL'S     PARADISE.  31 

owing  to  the  stupidity — or  worse — of  British  rule.  It  was 
asserted,  and  generally  taken  for  granted,  that  the  exiles 
of  Erin  sprang  to  the  front  in  every  walk  of  life  through- 
out the  world,  in  every  country  but  their  own — though  I 
notice  that  in  quite  recent  times  endeavours  have  been 
made  to  cool  the  emigration  fever  by  painting  the  for- 
tunes of  the  Irish  in  America  in  the  darkest  colours.  To 
suggest  that  there  was  any  use  in  trying  at  home 
to  make  the  best  of  things  as  they  were  was 
indicative  of  a  leaning  towards  British  rule ;  and  to 
attempt  to  give  practical  effect  to  such  a  heresy  was  to 
draw  a  red  herring  across  the  path  of  true  Nationalism. 

It  is  not  easy  to  account  for  the  long  continuance  of 
this  attitude  of  the  Irish  mind  towards  Irish  problems, 
which  seems  unworthy  of  the  native  intelligence  of 
the  people.  The  truth  probably  is  that  while  we  have 
not  allowed  our  intellectual  gifts  to  decay,  they  have 
been  of  little  use  to  us  because  we  have  neglected  the 
second  part  of  the  old  Scholastic  rule  of  life,  and  have 
failed  to  develop  the  moral  qualities  in  which  we  are 
deficient.  Hence  we  have  developed  our  critical  facul- 
ties, not,  unhappily,  along  constructive  lines.  We  have 
been  throughout  alive  to  the  muddling  of  our  affairs  by 
the  English,  and  have  accurately  gauged  the  incapacity 
of  our  governors  to  appreciate  our  needs  and  possibilities. 
But  we  recognised  their  incapacity  more  readily  than  our 
own  deficiencies,  and  we  estimated  the  failure  of  the 
English  far  more  justly  than  we  apportioned  the  respon- 
sibility between  our  rulers  and  ourselves.  The  sense  of 


J2  THE    IRISH    QUESTION    IN    IRELAND. 

the  duty  and  dignity  of  labour  has  been  lost  in  the  con- 
templation of  circumstances  over  which  it  was  assumed 
that  we  have  no  control. 

It  is  a  peculiarity  of  destructive  criticism  that,  unlike 
charity,  it  generally  begins  and  ends  abroad ;  and  those 
who  cultivate  the  gentle  art  are  seldom  given  to  morbid 
introspection.  Our  prodigious  ignorance  about  ourselves 
has  not  been  blissful.  Mistaking  self-assertion  for  self- 
knowledge,  we  have  presented  the  pathetic  spectacle  of  a 
people  casting  the  blame  for  their  shortcomings  on 
another  people,  yet  bearing  the  consequences  themselves. 
The  national  habit  of  living  in  the  past  seems  to  give  us 
a  present  without  achievement,  a  future  without  hope. 
The  conclusion  was  long  ago  forced  upon  me  that  what- 
ever may  have  been  true  of  the  past,  the  chief  responsi- 
bility for  the  remoulding  of  our  national  life  rests  now 
with  ourselves,  and  that  in  the  last  analysis  the  problem 
of  Irish  ineffectiveness  at  home  is  in  the  main  a  problem 
of  character — and  of  Irish  character. 

I  am  quite  aware  that  such  a  diagnosis  of  our  mind 
disease — from  which  Ireland  is,  in  my  belief,  slowly  but 
surely  recovering — will  not  pass  unchallenged,  but  I 
would  ask  any  reader  who  dissents  from  this  view 
to  take  a  glance  at  the  picture  of  our  national  life  as  it 
might  unfold  itself  to  an  unprejudiced  but  sympathetic 
outsider  who  came  to  Ireland  not  on  a  political  tour  but 
with  a  sincere  desire  to  get  at  the  truth  of  the  Irish 
Question,  and  to  inquire  into  the  conditions  about  which 
all  the  controversy  continues  to  rage. 


SOME  IRISH  ANOMALIES.  33 

This  hypothetical  traveller  would  discover  that  our 
resources  are  but  half  developed,  and  yet  hundreds  of 
thousands  o£  our  workers  have  gone,  and  are  still  going, 
to  produce  wealth  where  it  is  less  urgently  needed.  The 
remnant  of  the  race  who  still  cling  to  the  old  country  are 
not  only  numerically  weak,  but  in  many  other  ways  they 
show  the  physical  and  moral  effects  of  the  drain  which 
emigration  has  made  on  the  youth,  strength,  and  energy 
of  the  community.  Our  four  and  a  quarter  millions  of 
people,  mainly  agricultural,  have,  speaking  generally,  a 
very  low  standard  of  comfort,  which  they  like  to  attribute 
to  some  five  or  six  millions  sterling  paid  as  agricultural 
rent,  and  three  millions  of  alleged  over-taxation.  They 
face  the  situation  bravely — and,  incidentally,  swell  the 
over-taxation — with  the  help  of  the  thirteen  or  fourteen 
millions  worth  of  alcoholic  stimulants  which  they  annually 
consume.  The  still  larger  consumption  in  Great  Britain 
may  seem  to  lend  at  least  a  respectability  to  this  apparent 
over-indulgence,  but  it  looks  odd.  The  people  are 
endowed  with  intellectual  capacities  of  a  high  order. 
They  have  literary  gifts  and  an  artistic  sense.  Yet, 
with  a  few  brilliant  exceptions,  they  contribute 
nothing  to  invention  and  create  nothing  in  literature 
or  in  art.  One  would  say  that  there  must  be  some- 
thing wrong  with  the  education  of  the  country ;  and 
most  people  declare  that  it  is  too  literary,  though  the 
Census  returns  show  that  there  are  still  large  numbers  who 
escape  the  tyranny  of  books.  The  people  have  an  extra- 
ordinary belief  in  political  remedies  for  economic  ills  ; 


34  THE  IRISH  QUESTION   IN   IRELAND. 

and  their  political  leaders,  who  are  not  as  a  rule  them- 
selves actively  engaged  in  business  life,  tell  the  people, 
pointing  to  ruined  mills  and  unused  water  power,  that 
the  country  once  had  diversified  industries,  and  that  if 
they  were  allowed  to  apply  their  panacea,  Ireland  would 
quickly  rebuild  her  industrial  life.  If  our  hypothetical 
traveller  were  to  ask  whether  there  are  no  other  leaders 
in  the  country  besides  the  eloquent  gentlemen  who 
proclaim  her  helplessness,  he  would  be  told  that  among 
the  professional  classes,  the  landlords,  and  the  captains 
of  industry,  are  to  be  found  as  competent  popular 
advisers  as  are  possessed  by  any  other  country  of 
similar  economic  standing.  But  these  men  take  only 
a  dilettante  part  in  politics,  and  no  value  is  set  on 
industrial,  commercial  or  professional  success  in  the 
choice  of  public  men.  Can  it  be  that  to  the  Irish  mind 
politics  are,  what  Bulwer  Lytton  declared  love  to  be, 
"  the  business  of  the  idle,  and  the  idleness  of  the  busy  "  ? 
These,  though  only  a  few  of  the  strange  ironies  of 
Irish  life,  are  so  paradoxical  and  so  anomalous  that  they 
are  not  unnaturally  attributed  to  the  intrusion  of  an  alien 
and  unfriendly  power  ;  and  this  furnishes  the  reason  why 
everything  which  goes  wrong  is  used  to  nourish  the  anti- 
English  sentiment.  At  the  same  time  they  give  emphasis 
to  the  growing  doubt  as  to  the  wisdom  of  those  to  whom 
the  Irish  Question  presents  itself  only  as  a  single  and 
simple  issue — namely,  whether  the  laws  which  are  tc 
put  all  these  things  right  shall  be  made  at  St.  Stephen'? 
by  the  collective  wisdom  of  the  United  Kingdom,  aided 


THE  UNION  OF  NORTH  AND  SOUTH.  35 

by  the  voice  of  Ireland — which  is  adequately  represented 
— or  whether  these  laws  shall  be  made  by  Irishmen  alone 
in  a  Parliament  in  College  Green. 

It  is  obviously  necessary  that,  in  presenting  a  compre- 
hensive scheme  for  dealing  with  the  conditions  I  have 
roughly  indicated,  I  should  make  some  reference  to  the 
attitude  towards  Home  Rule  of  both  the  Nationalists  and 
the  Unionists  who  have  joined  in  work  which,  whatever 
be  its  irregularity  from  the  standpoint  of  party  dis- 
cipline as  enforced  in  Ireland,  has  succeeded  in  some 
degree  in  directing  the  energies  of  our  countrymen  to  the 
development  of  the  resources  of  our  country.  Many  of 
my  fellow-workers  were  Nationalists  who,  while  stoutly 
adhering  to  the  prime  necessity  for  constitutional  changes, 
took  the  broad  view,  which  was  unpopular  among  the 
Irish  Party,  that  much  could  be  done,  even  under  present 
conditions,  to  build  up  our  national  life  on  its  social,  intel- 
lectual, and  economic  sides.  The  well-known  constitu- 
tional changes  which  were  advocated  in  the  political 
party  to  which  they  belonged  would  then,  they  believed, 
be  more  effectively  demanded  by  Ireland,  and  more 
readily  conceded  by  England.  Unionists  who  worked 
with  me  were  similarly  affected  by  the  changing  mental 
outlook  of  the  country.  They,  too,  had  to  break  loose 
from  the  traditions  of  an  Irish  party,  for  they  felt  that 
the  exclusively  political  opposition  to  Home  Rule  was  not 
less  demoralising  than  the  exclusively  political  pursuit  of 
Home  Rule.  Just  as  the  Nationalists  who  joined  the 
movement  believed  that  all  progress  must  make  for  self- 


36  THE  IRISH  QUESTION   IN   IRELAND. 

government,  so  my  Unionist  fellow-workers  believed 
it  would  ultimately  strengthen  the  Union.  Each  view 
was  thoroughly  sound  from  the  standpoint  of  those  who 
held  it,  and  could  be  regarded  with  respect  by  those  who 
did  not.  We  were  all  convinced  that  the  way  to  achieve 
what  is  best  for  Ireland  was  to  develop  what  is  best  in 
Irishmen.  And  it  was  the  conviction  that  this  can  be 
done  by  Irishmen  in  Ireland  that  brought  together 
those  whose  thought  and  work  supplies  whatever  there 
may  be  of  interest  in  this  book. 

If  I  have  fairly  stated  the  attitude  towards  each  other 
of  the  workers  to  whose  coming  together  must  be 
attributed  as  much  of  the  change  in  the  Irish  situation 
as  is  due  to  Irish  initiation,  it  will  be  seen  that  what  had 
so  long  kept  them  apart  in  public  affairs,  outside  politics, 
was  a  difference  of  opinion,  not  so  much  as  to  the 
conditions  to  be  dealt  with,  nor,  indeed,  as  to  the  end  to 
be  sought,  but  rather  as  to  the  means  most  effective  for 
the  attainment  of  that  end.  I  naturally  regard  the  view 
which  I  am  putting  forward  as  being  broader  than  that 
which  has  hitherto  prevailed.  Some  Nationalists  may, 
however,  contend  that  it  is  essential  to  progress  that  the 
thoughts  and  energies  of  the  nation  should  be  focussed 
upon  a  single  movement,  and  not  dissipated  in  the 
pursuit  of  a  multiplicity  of  ideals.  I  quite  admit  the 
importance  of  concentration.  But  I  strongly  hold  that 
any  movement  which  is  closely  related  to  the  main 
currents  of  the  people's  life  and  subservient  to  their 
urgent  economic  necessities,  and  which  gives  free  play  to 


THE  TWO   IRELANDS.  37 

the  intellectual  qualities,  while  strengthening-  the  moral 
or  industrial  character,  cannot  be  held  to  conflict  with 
any    national    programme    of   work,   without    raising  a 
strong  presumption  that  there  is  something  wrong  with 
the  programme.       The  exclusively    political    remedy  I 
shall  discuss  in  the  next  chapter,  but  here  I  propose  to 
consider  some  of  the  problems  which  the  new  movement 
seeks  to  solve  without  waiting  for  the  political  millenium. 
It  is  a  commonplace  that  there  are  two  Irelands,  dif- 
fering in  race,  in  creed,  in  political  aspiration,  and  in 
what  I  regard  as  a  more  potent  factor  than  all  the  others 
put  together — economic  interest  and  industrial  pursuit. 
In  the  mutual  misunderstanding  of  these  two  Irelands, 
still  more  than  in  the  misunderstanding  of  Ireland  by 
England,  is  to  be  found  the  chief  cause  of  the  still 
unsettled  state  of  the  Irish  Question.     I  shall  not  seek 
to  apportion  the  blame  between  the  two  sections  of  the 
population ;    but  as  the  mists  clear  away  and  we  can 
begin  to  construct  a  united  and  contented  Ireland,  it  is 
not  only  legitimate,  but  helpful  in  the  extreme,  to  assign 
to   the    two    sections    of    our    wealth-producers     their 
respective  parts  in  repairing  the  fortunes  of  their  country. 
In  such  a  discussion  of  future  developments  chief  pro- 
minence   must    necessarily    be    given  to  the  problems 
affecting  the  life  of  the  majority  of  the  people,  who 
depend  directly  on  the  land,  and  conduct  the  industry 
which  produces  by  far  the  greater  portion  of  the  wealth 
of  the  country.    It  is,  of  course,  essential  to  the  prosperity 
of  the  whole  community  that  the  North  should  pursue 


38  THE  IRISH  QUESTION   IN   IRELAND. 

and  further  develop  its  own  industrial  and  commercial 
life.  That  section  of  the  community  has  also,  no  doubt, 
economic  and  educational  problems  to  face,  but  these 
are  much  the  same  problems  as  those  of  industrial  com- 
munities in  other  parts  of  the  United  Kingdom* ;  and  if 
they  do  not  receive,  vitally  important  as  is  their  solution 
to  the  welfare  of  Ireland,  any  large  share  of  attention  in 
this  book,  it  is  because  they  are  no  part  of  what  is 
ordinarily  understood  by  the  Irish  Question. 

Nevertheless,  the  interest  of  the  manufacturing  popu- 
lation of  Ulster  in  the  welfare  of  the  Roman  Catholic 
agricultural  majority  is  not  merely  that  of  an  onlooker, 
nor  even  that  of  the  other  parts  of  the  United  Kingdom, 
but  something  more.  It  is  obvious  that  the  internal 
trade  of  the  country  depends  mainly  upon  the  demand 
of  the  rural  population  for  the  output  of  the  manu- 
facturing towns,  and  that  this  demand  must  depend 
on  the  volume  of  agricultural  production.  I  think 
the  importance  of  developing  the  home  market  has  not 
been  sufficiently  appreciated,  even  by  Belfast.  The 
best  contribution  the  Ulster  Protestant  population  can 
make  to  the  solution  of  this  question  is  to  do  what  they 
can  to  bring  about  cordial  co-operation  between  the  two 

*  I  speak  from  personal  knowledge  when  I  say  that  the  leaders  of  Irish 
industry  and  commerce  are  fully  alive  to  the  practical  consideration 
which  they  have  now  to  devote  to  the  new  conditions  by  which  they 
are  surrounded.  They  recognise  that  the  intensified  foreign  competi- 
tion which  harasses  them  is  due  chiefly  to  German  education  and 
American  enterprise.  They  are  deep  in  the  consideration  of  the  form 
which  technical  education  should  take  to  meet  their  peculiar  needs  ; 
and  I  am  confident  that  Ulster  will  make  a  sound  and  useful  contribu- 
tion to  the  solution  of  the  commercial  and  industrial  problems  which 
confront  the  manufacturers  of  the  United  Kingdom. 


THE  NORTH  AND  THE  IRISH   QUESTION.  39 

great  sections  of  the  wealth-producers  of  Ireland.  They 
should,  I  would  suggest,  learn  to  take  a  broader  and 
more  patriotic  view  of  the  problems  of  the  Roman 
Catholic  and  agricultural  majority,  upon  the  true  nature 
of  which  I  hope  to  be  able  to  throw  some  new  light. 
My  purpose  will  be  doubly  served  if  I  have,  to  some 
extent,  brought  home  to  the  minds  of  my  Northern 
friends  that  there  is  in  Ireland  an  unsettled  question  in 
which  they  are  largely  concerned,  a  rightly  unsatisfied 
people  by  helping  whom  they  can  best  help  themselves. 
The  Irish  Question  is,  then,  in  that  aspect  which  must 
be  to  Irishmen  of  paramount  importance,  the  problem 
of  a  national  existence,  chiefly  an  agricultural  existence, 
in  Ireland.  To  outside  observers  it  is  the  question  of 
rural  life,  a  question  which  is  assuming  a  social  and 
economic  importance  and  interest  of  the  most  intense 
character,  not  only  for  Ireland  North  and  South,  but  for 
almost  the  whole  civilised  world  It  is  becoming  in- 
creasingly difficult  in  many  parts  of  the  world  to  keep 
the  people  on  the  land,  owing  to  the  enormously 
improved  industrial  opportunities  and  enhanced  social 
and  intellectual  advantages  of  urban  life.  The  problem 
can  be  better  examined  in  Ireland  than  elsewhere,  for 
with  us  it  can,  to  a  large  extent,  be  isolated,  since 
we  have  little  highly  developed  town  life.  Our  rural 
exodus  takes  our  people,  for  the  most  part,  not  into  Irish 
or  even  into  British  towns,  but  into  those  of  the  United 
States.  What  is  migration  in  other  countries  is  emigra- 
tion with  us,  and  the  mind  of  the  country,  brooding  over 


40  THE  IRISH  gUESTION   IN    IRELAND. 

the  dreary  statistics  of  this  perennial  drain,  naturally  and 
longingly  turns  to  schemes  for  the  rehabilitation  of  rural 
life — the  only  life  it  knows. 

We  cannot  exercise  much  direct  influence  upon  the 
desire  to  emigrate  beyond  spreading  knowledge  as  to  the 
real  conditions  of  life  in  America,  for  which  home  life  in 
Ireland  is  often  ignorantly  bartered.*  We  cannot  isolate 
the  phenomenon  of  emigration  and  find  a  cure  for  it  apart 
from  the  rest  of  the  Irish  Question.  We  must  recognise 
that  emigration  is  but  the  chief  symptom  of  a  low  national 
vitality,  and  that  the  first  result  of  our  efforts  to  stay  the 
tide  may  increase  the  outflow.  We  cannot  fit  the 
people  to  stay  without  fitting  them  to  go.  Before  we  can 
keep  the  people  at  home  we  have  got  to  construct  a 
national  life  with,  in  the  first  place,  a  secure  basis  of 
physical  comfort  and  decency.  This  life  must  have  a 
character,  a  dignity,  an  outlook  of  its  own.  A  comfort- 
able Boeotia  will  never  develop  into  a  real  Hibemia 
Pacata.  The  standard  of  living  may  in  some  ways  be 
lower  than  the  English  standard :  in  some  ways  it  may 
be  higher.  But  even  if  statesmanship  and  all  the  forces 
of  philanthropy  and  patriotism  combined  can  construct  a 
contented  rural  Ireland  for  the  people,  it  can  only  be 

*  That  such  a  knowledge  is  still  required,  though  the  need  is  becom- 
ing less  urgent,  is  shown  by  an  incident  which  illustrates  the  pathos  of 
the  Irish  exodus.  A  poor  woman  once  asked  me  to  help  her  son  to 
emigrate  to  America,  and  I  agreed  to  pay  his  passage.  Early  in  the 
negotiations,  finding  that  she  was  somewhat  vague  as  to  her  boy's 
prospects,  I  asked  her  whether  he  wanted  to  go  to  North  or  South 
America.  This  detail  she  seemed  to  consider  immaterial.  "  Ach,  glory 
be  to  God,  I  lave  that  to  yer  honner.  Why  wouldn't  I?"  Had  I 
shipped  him  to  Peru  she  would  have  been  quite  satisfied.  Why 
wouldn't  she  ? 


THE  PROBLEM  OF  RURAL  LIFE  4! 

maintained  by  the  people.  It  will  have  to  accord  with 
the  national  sentiment  and  be  distinctively  Irish.  It 
is  this  national  aspiration,  and  the  remarkable  promise 
of  the  movements  making  for  its  fruition,  which 
give  to  the  work  of  Irish  social  and  economic  reform 
the  fascination  which  those  who  do  not  know  the  Ireland 
of  to-day  cannot  understand.  This  work  of  reform  must, 
of  course,  be  primarily  economic,  but  economic  remedies 
cannot  be  applied  to  Irish  ills  without  the  spiritual  aids 
which  are  required  to  move  to  action  the  latent  forces  of 
Irish  reason  and  emotion. 

The  task  which  we  have  to  face  is,  then,  a  two- 
sided  one,  but  its  economic  and  its  purely  practical 
aspects  first  demand  consideration.  Many  even  of  the 
agrarian  aspects  of  the  question  have,  so  far,  been 
somewhat  neglected  in  Ireland  owing  to  a  cause 
which  is  not  far  to  seek.  It  has  often  been  asserted 
that  the  Irish  Question  is,  at  bottom,  the  Land 
Question.  There  is  a  great  deal  of  truth  in  this  view, 
but  almost  all  those  who  hold  it  have  fallen  into 
the  grave  error  of  tacitly  identifying  the  land  question 
with  the  tenure  question — an  error  which  vitiates  a 
great  deal  of  current  theorising  about  Ireland.  It  was, 
indeed,  inevitable  that  Irish  agriculturists,  with  such 
an  economic  history  behind  them  as  I  have  outlined  in 
the  previous  chapter,  should  have  concentrated  their  atten- 
tion during  the  latter  half  of  the  nineteenth  century 
upon  obtaining  a  legislative  cure  for  the  ills  produced  by 


42  THE  IRISH  QUESTION    IN    IRELAND. 

legislation,  to  the  comparative  neglect  of  those  equally 
difficult,  if  less  obvious  economic  questions,  which  have 
been  brought  into  special  prominence  by  the  agricultural 
depression  of  the  last  quarter  of  a  century.  Now,  how- 
ever, that  the  Land  Act  of  1903  has  been  passed  and  the 
solution  of  the  tenure  question  is  in  sight,  we  in  Ireland 
are  more  free  to  direct  our  attention  to  what  is  at 
present  the  most  important  aspect  of  the  agrarian 
situation — the  necessity  for  determining  the  social  and 
economic  conditions  essential  to  the  well-being  of  the 
peasant  proprietary,  which,  though  it  is  to  be  started 
with  as  bright  an  outlook  as  the  law  can  give,  must 
stand  or  fall  by  its  own  inherent  merits  or  defects.  Not 
only  are  we  now  free  to  give  adequate  consideration  to 
this  question,  but  it  is  also  imperative  that  we  should  do 
so,  for  whilst  I  am  hopeful  that  the  Land  Act  will  settle 
the  question  of  tenure,  it  will  obviously  not  merely  leave 
the  other  problems  of  agricultural  existence — problems 
some  of  which  are  not  unknown  in  other  parts  of  the 
United  Kingdom — still  unsolved,  but  will  also  increase 
the  necessity  for  their  solution,  and  will,  moreover,  bring 
in  its  train  complex  difficulties  of  its  own. 

The  main  features  of  the  depressing  outlook  of  rural 
life  in  the  United  Kingdom  are  well  known.  The  land 
steadily  passes  from  under  the  plough  and  is  given  over 
to  stock  raising.  As  the  kine  increase  the  men  decay. 
In  Ireland  the  rural  exodus  takes,  as  I  have  already  said, 
the  shape,  mainly,  not  of  migration  to  Irish  urban  centres, 
but  rather  the  uglier  form  of  an  emigration  which  not 


THE  UNTILLED  FIELDS.  43 

only  depletes  our  population  but  drains  it  of  the  very 
elements  which  can  least  be  spared. 

The  reason  generally  given  for  the  widespread  resort 
to  the  lotus-eating  occupation  of  opening  and  shutting 
gates,  in  preference  to  tilling  the  soil,  is  that  in  the  exist- 
ing state  of  agricultural  organisation,  and  while  urban  life 
is  ever  drawing  away  labour  from  the  fields,  the  substitu- 
tion of  pasturage  for  tillage  is  the  readiest  way  to  meet 
the  ruinous  competition  of  Eastern  Europe,  the  Western 
Hemisphere,  and  Australasia.  Yet  upon  the  economic 
merits  of  this  process  I  have  heard  the  most  diverse 
opinions  stated  with  equal  conviction  by  men  thoroughly 
well  informed  as  to  the  conditions.  One  of  the  largest 
graziers  in  Ireland  recently  gave  me  a  picture  of  what 
he  considered  to  be  an  ideal  economic  state  for  the 
country.  If  two  more  Belfasts  could  be  established  on 
the  east  coast,  and  the  rest  of  the  country  divided  into 
five  hundred  acre  farms,  grazing  being  adopted  wherever 
permanent  grass  would  grow,  the  limits  of  Irish  pro- 
ductivity would  be  reached.  On  the  other  hand,  Dr. 
O'Donnell,  the  Roman  Catholic  Bishop  of  Raphoe,  who 
may  be  taken  as  an  authoritative  exponent  of  the  trend 
of  popular  thought  in  the  country,  not  long  ago  advocated 
ploughing  the  grazing  lands  of  Leinster  right  up  to  the 
slopes  of  Tara.*  Moreover,  many  theories  have  been 

*  Yet  another  view  which  seems  to  uproot  most  agrarian  ideas  in 
Ireland  has  been  put  forward  by  Dr.  O'Gara  in  The  Green  Republic 
(Fisher  Unwin,  1902),  His  main  conclusion  is  that  the  present 
disastrous  state  of  our  rural  economy  is  due  to  our  treating  land  as  an 
object  of  property  and  not  of  industry.  He  advocates  the  cultivation 
of  the  land  by  syndicates  holding  farms  of  20,000  acres  and  tilling  them 


44  THE  IRISH  QUESTION   IN    IRELAND. 

advanced  to  show  that  the  decline  of  tillage,  whatever 
be  its  cause,  involves  an  enormous  waste  of  national 
resources.  But  of  practical  suggestion,  making  for  a 
remedy,  there  is  very  little  forthcoming. 

The  solution  of  all  such  problems  largely  depends  upon 
certain  developments  which,  for  many  reasons,  I  regard 
as  absolutely  essential  to  the  success  of  the  new  agrarian 
order.  One  of  these  developments  is  the  spread  of 
agricultural  co-operation  through  voluntary  associations. 
Without  this  agency  of  social  and  economic  progress, 
small  landholders  in  Ireland  will  be  but  a  body  of 
isolated  units,  having  all  the  drawbacks  of  individualism, 
and  none  of  its  virtues,  unorganised  and  singularly  ill- 
equipped  for  that  great  international  struggle  of  our 
time,  which  we  know  as  agricultural  competition.  More- 
over, there  is  another  equally  important,  if  less  obvious, 
consideration  which  renders  urgent  the  organisation  of 
our  rural  communities.  From  Russia,  with  its  half- 
communistic  Mir  to  France  with  its  modern  village 
commune,  there  is  no  country  in  Europe  except  the 
United  Kingdom  where  the  peasant  land-holders  have 
not  some  form  of  corporate  existence.  In  Ireland  the 
transition  from  landlordism  to  a  peasant  proprietary  not 
only  does  not  create  any  corporate  existence  among  the 

by  the  lavish  application  of  modern  machinery  as  the  only  way  to  meet 
American  competition.  His  book  is  able  and  suggestive,  but  it  is 
perhaps,  a  work  of  supererogation  to  discuss  a  theory  the  whole  moral 
of  which  is  the  expediency  of  absolutely  divorcing  the  functions  of  the 
proprietor  and  the  manager  of  land  at  a  time  when  the  consensus  of 
opinion  in  Ireland  is  in  favour  of  uniting  them,  and  in  view  of  the  fact 
that  under  the  new  Land  Act  the  future  of  the  country  seems  inevit- 
ably to  lie  for  a  long  time  in  the  hands  of  a  peasant  proprietary. 


THE  ORGANISATION    OF    THE    PEASANTRY.  45 

occupying-  peasantry  but  rather  deprives  them  of  the 
slight  social  coherence  which  they  formerly  possessed 
as  tenants  of  the  same  landlord.  The  estate  office  has 
its  uses  as  well  as  its  disadvantages,  and  the  landlord  or 
agent  is  by  no  means  without  his  value  as  a  business 
adviser  to  those  from  whom  he  collects  the  rent. 

The  organisation  of  the  peasantry  by  an  extension  of 
voluntary  associations,  which  is  a  condition  precedent  of 
social  and  economic  progress,  will  not,  however,  suffice 
to  enable  them  to  face  and  solve  the  problems  with  which 
they    are    confronted,    and    whose    solution    has    now 
become  a  matter  of  very  serious  concern  to  the  British 
taxpayer.      The   condition  of  our  agrarian  life  clearly 
indicates  the  necessity  for  supplementing  voluntary  effort 
with  a  sound  system  of  State  aid  to  agriculture  and 
industry — a  necessity  fully  recognised  by  the  governments 
of  every  progressive  continental  country  and  of  our  own 
colonies.     An  altogether  hopeful  beginning  of  combined 
self-help  and  State  assistance  has  been  already  made. 
Those  who  have  been  studying  these  problems,  and  prac- 
tically preparing  the  way  for  the  proper  care  of  a  peasant 
proprietary,  have  overcome  the  chief  obstacles  which  lay 
in  their  path.     They  have  gained  popular  acceptance  for 
the  principle  that  State  aid  should  not  be  resorted  to 
until    organised    voluntary    effort    has  first  been  set  in 
motion,  and  that  any  departure  from  this  principle  would 
be  an  unwarrantable  interference  with  the  business  of 
the  people,  a  fatal  blow  to  private  enterprise.* 

*  The  reader  may  wonder  why  I  touch  so  lightly  upon  a  fact  of 


46  THE  IRISH  QUESTION   IN   IRELAND. 

The  task  before  the  people,  and  before  the  State,  of 
placing  the  new  agrarian  order  upon  a  permanent  basis 
of  decency  and  comfort  is  no  light  one.  Indeed,  I  doubt 
whether  Parliament  realises  one-tenth  of  the  problems 
which  the  latest  land  legislation — by  far  the  best  we 
have  yet  had — leaves  unsolved.  This  becomes  only  too 
clear  the  moment  we  consider  seriously  the  fundamental 
question  of  the  relation  of  population  to  area  in  rural 
Ireland,  or,  in  other  words,  when  we  inquire  how  many 
people  the  agricultural  land  will  support  under  existing 
circumstances,  or  under  any  attainable  improvement  of 
the  conditions  in  our  rural  life.  Roughly  speaking,  the 
surface  area  of  the  island  is  20,000,000  acres,  of  which 
5,000,000  are  described  in  the  official  returns  as  '  barren 
mountain,  bog  and  waste.'  This  leaves  us  with  some 
15,000,000  acres  available  for  agriculture  and  grazing, 
which  area  is  now  divided  into  some  500,000  holdings. 
Thus  we  have  an  average  of  thirty  acres  in  extent  for  the 
Irish  agricultural  holding.  But,  unhappily,  the  returns 
show  that  some  200,000  of  these  holdings  are  from  one 
to  fifteen  acres  in  extent.  Nor  do  the  mere  figures  show 
the  case  at  its  worst.  For  it  happens  that  the  small 
holdings  in  Ireland,  unlike  those  on  the  Continent,  are 
generally  on  the  poorest  land,  and  the  majority  of  them 

such  profound  significance  as  the  Irishman's  acceptance  of  self-help  as 
a  condition  precedent  of  State  aid  in  the  development  of  agriculture 
and  industry.  But  such  a  cursory  treatment,  in  the  early  chapters,  of 
this  and  of  other  equally  important  aspects  of  the  Irish  situation  is 
necessitated  by  the  plan  I  have  adopted.  I  am  attempting  to  give  in 
the  first  part  of  the  book  a  philosophic  insight  into  the  chief  Irish 
problems,  and  then,  in  the  second  part  of  the  book,  to  present  the  facts 
which  appear  to  me  to  illustrate  these  problems  in  process  of  solution. 


THE  AGRARIAN  DANGER.  47 

cannot  come  within  any  of  the  definitions  of  an  '  economic 
holding.' 

These  200,000  holdings,  the  homes  of  nearly  a  million 
persons,  threaten  to  prove  the  greatest  danger  to  the 
future  of  agricultural  Ireland  As  the  majority  of  them, 
as  at  present  constituted,  do  not  provide  the  physical 
basis  of  a  decent  standard  of  living,  the  question  arises, 
how  are  they  to  be  improved  ?  Putting  aside  emigration, 
which  at  one  period  was  necessary  and  ought  to  have 
been  aided  and  controlled  by  the  State,  but  which  is  now 
no  longer  a  statesman's  remedy,  there  is  obviously  no 
solution  except  by  the  migration  of  a  portion  of  the 
occupiers,  and  the  utilisation  of  the  vacated  holdings  in 
order  to  enable  the  peasants  who  remain  to  prosper — 
much  as  a  forest  is  thinned  to  promote  the  growth  of 
trees.  In  typical  congested  districts  this  operation  will 
have  to  be  carried  out  on  a  much  larger  scale  than 
is  generally  realised,  for  a  considerable  majority  of 
families  will  have  to  be  removed,  in  order  to  allow  a 
sufficient  margin  for  the  provision  of  adequate  holdings 
for  those  who  remain.  In  some  cases,  there  are  large 
grazing  tracts  in  close  proximity  to  the  congested  area 
which  might  be  utilised  for  the  re-settlement,  but  where 
this  is  not  so  and  the  occupiers  of  the  vacated  holdings 
have  to  migrate  a  considerable  distance,  the  problem 
becomes  far  more  difficult.  I  need  not  dwell  upon  the 
administrative  difficulties  of  the  operation,  which  are 
not  light.  I  may  assume,  also,  that  there  will  be  no 
difficulty  in  obtaining  suitable  land  somewhere.  I  do 


48  THE  IRISH  QUESTION    IN    IRELAND. 

not  myself  attach  much  weight  to  the  unwillingness  of 
the  people  to  leave  their  old  holdings  for  better  ones,  or 
to  the  alleged  objection  of  the  clergy  to  allow  their 
parishioners  to  go  to  another  parish.  More  serious  is 
the  possible  opposition  of  those  who  live  in  the  vicinity 
of  the  unoccupied  land  about  to  be  distributed,  and  who 
feel  that  they  have  the  first  claim  upon  the  State  in  any 
scheme  for  its  redistribution  with  the  help  of  public 
credit.  Mr.  Parnell  promoted  a  company  with  the  sole 
object  of  practically  demonstrating  how  this  problem 
could  be  solved.  A  large  capital  was  raised,  and  a  large 
estate  purchased ;  but  the  company  did  not  effect  the 
migration  of  a  single  family.  Still  these  are  minor 
considerations  compared  with  the  larger  one,  to  which  I 
must  briefly  refer. 

Under  the  Land  Act  of  1903  much  has  been  done  to 
facilitate  the  transfer  of  peasants  to  new  farms,  but 
it  is  obvious  that  land  cannot  be  handed  over  as  a  gift 
from  the  State  to  the  families  which  migrate.  They 
will  become  debtors  for  the  value  of  the  land  itself,  less 
perhaps  a  small  sum  which  may  be  credited  to  them  in 
respect  of  the  tenant's  interest  in  the  holdings  they  have 
abandoned.  This  deduction  will,  however,  be  lost  in  the 
expenditure  required  upon  houses,  buildings,  fences,  and 
other  improvements  which  would  have  to  be  effected 
before  the  land  could  be  profitably  occupied.  Speaking 
generally  they  will  have  no  money  or  agricultural  im- 
plements, and  their  live  stock  will  in  many  cases  b? 
mortgaged  to  the  local  shopkeeper  who  lias  always 


HEAVEN  OR  LEINSTER.  49 

financed  them.  It  will  be  necessary  for  the  future 
welfare  of  the  country  to  give  them  land  which  admits 
of  cultivation  upon  the  ordinary  principles  of  modern 
agriculture ;  but  without  working  capital,  and  bringing 
with  them  neither  the  skill  nor  the  habits  necessary  for 
the  successful  conduct  of  their  industry  under  the  new 
conditions,  it  will  be  no  easy  task  to  place  them  in  a 
position  to  discharge  their  obligations  to  the  State.  It 
is  all  very  easy  to  talk  about  the  obvious  necessity  of 
giving  more  land  to  cultivators  who  have  not  enough  to 
live  upon ;  and  there  is,  no  doubt,  a  poetic  justice  in  the 
Utopian  agrarianism  which  dangles  before  the  eyes  of 
the  Connaught  peasantry  the  alternative  of  Heaven  or 
Leinster.  But  when  we  come  down  to  practical  econo- 
mics, and  face  the  task  of  giving  to  a  certain  number  of 
human  beings,  in  an  extremely  backward  industrial 
condition,  the  opportunity  of  placing  themselves  and 
their  families  on  a  basis  of  permanent  well-being,  it  will 
be  evident  that,  so  far,  at  any  rate,  as  this  particular  com- 
munity is  concerned,  the  mere  provision  of  an  economic 
holding  is  after  all  but  a  part  of  an  economic  existence. 
I  have  touched  upon  this  question  of  migration  from 
uneconomic  to  economic  holdings  because  it  signally 
illustrates  the  importance  of  the  human,  in  contra- 
distinction to  the  merely  material  considerations  involved 
in  the  solution  of  the  many-sided  Irish  Question.  I 
must  now  return  to  the  wider  question  of  the  relation  of 
population  to  area  in  rural  Ireland,  as  it  affects  the 
general  scheme  of  agricultural  and  industrial  development. 


JJO  THE  IRISH  QUESTION   IN    IRELAND. 

It  is  obvious  that  there  must  be  a  limit  to  the  number 
of  individuals  that  the  land  can  support.     Allowing  an 
average  of  five  members  for  each  family,  and  allowing 
for  a  considerable  number  of  landless  labourers,  it  seems 
that    the    land    at    present    directly    supports    about 
2,500,000  persons — a  view  which,  I  may  add,  is  fully 
borne  out  by  the  figures  of  the  recent  census ;  and  it  is 
hard  to  see  how  a  population  living  by  agriculture  can 
be  much  increased  beyond  this  number.     Even  if  all  the 
land   in   Ireland   were   available   for   re-distribution   in 
equal  shares,  the  higher  standard  of  comfort  to  which  it 
is  essential  that  the  condition  of  our  people  should  be 
raised  would  forbid  the  existence  of  much  more  than 
half  a  million  peasant  proprietors.  *  Hence  the  evergreen 
query,  '  What  shall  we  do  with  our  boys  ? '  remains  to  be 
answered ;  for  while  the  abolition  of  dual  ownership  will 
enable  the  present  generation  to  bring  up  their  children 
according  to  a  higher  standard  of  living,  the  change  will 
not  of  itself  provide  a  career  for  the  children  when  they 
have  been  brought  up.     The  next  generation  will  have 
to  face  this  problem : — the  average  farm  can  support 
only  one  of  the  children    and    his    family,  what  is  to 
become  of  the  others?       The  law  forbids  sub-division 
for   two    generations,  and  after  that,  ex  hypothesi,    the 
then  prevailing  conditions  of  life  will  also  prevent  such 
partition.     A  few  of  the  next  generation  may  become 

*  The  best  expert  agricultural  opinion  tells  me  that  under  present 
conditions  a  family  cannot  live  in  any  decent  standard  of  comfort — such 
as  I  hope  to  see  prevail  in  Ireland — on  less  than  30  acres  of  Irish  land, 
taking  the  bad  land  with  the  good. 


FOREIGN   ANALOGIES.  51 

agricultural  labourers,  but  this  involves  descending  to 
the  lowest  standard  of  living  of  to-day,  and  in  any  case 
the  demand  for  agricultural  labourers  is  not  capable  of 
much  extension  in  a  country  of  small  peasant  proprietors. 

Against  this  view  I  know  it  is  pointed  out  that  in  the 
earlier  part  of  the  nineteenth  century  the  agricultural 
population  of  Ireland  was  as  large  as  is  the  total  popula- 
tion of  to-day ;  but  we  know  the  sequel.  Instances  are 
also  cited  of  peasant  proprietaries  in  foreign  countries 
which  maintain  a  high  standard  of  living  upon  small, 
sometimes  diminutive,  and  highly-rented  holdings. 
We  must  remember,  however,  that  in  these  foreign 
countries  State  intervention  has  undoubtedly  done  much 
to  render  possible  a  prosperous  peasant  proprietary  by, 
for  example,  the  dissemination  of  useful  information, 
admirable  systems  of  technical  education  in  agriculture, 
cheap  and  expeditious  transport,  and  even  State  atten- 
tion to  the  distribution  of  agricultural  produce  in  distant 
markets.  Again,  in  many  of  these  countries  rural  life 
is  balanced  by  a  highly  industrial  town  life,  as,  for 
instance,  in  the  case  of  Belgium ;  or  is  itself  highly 
industrialised  by  the  existence  of  rural  industries,  as  in 
the  case  of  Switzerland ;  while  in  one  notable  instance 
— that  of  Wiirttemberg — both  these  conditions  prevail. 

The  true  lesson  to  be  drawn  from  these  foreign 
analogies  is  that  not  by  agriculture  alone  is  Ireland  to 
be  saved.  The  solution  of  the  rural  problem  embraces 
many  spheres  of  national  activity.  It  involves,  as  I  have 
already  said,  the  further  development  of  manufactures 


52  THE  IRISH  QUESTION   IN    IRELAND. 

in  Irish  towns.  One  of  the  best  ways  to  stimulate  our 
industries  is  to  develop  the  home  market  by  means  of  an 
increased  agricultural  production,  and  a  higher  standard 
of  comfort  among  the  peasant  producers.  We  shall  thus 
be,  so  to  speak,  operating  on  consumption  as  well  as  on 
production,  and  so  increasing  the  home  demand  for  Irish 
manufactures.  Perhaps  more  urgent  than  the  creation 
or  extension  of  manufactures  on  a  larger  scale  is  the 
development  of  industries  subsidiary  to  agriculture  in 
the  country.  This  is  generally  admitted,  and  most 
people  have  a  fair  knowledge  of  the  wide  and  varied 
range  of  peasant  industries  in  all  European  countries 
where  a  prosperous  peasantry  exists.  Nor  is  there 
much  difficulty  in  agreeing  upon  the  main  conditions 
to  be  satisfied  in  the  selection  of  the  industries 
to  meet  the  requirements  of  our  case.  The  men  and 
boys  require  employment  in  the  winter  months,  or  they 
will  not  stay,  and  the  rural  industries  promoted  should, 
as  far  as  possible,  be  those  which  allow  of  intermittent 
attention.  The  female  members  of  the  family  must  have 
profitable  and  congenial  employment.  The  handicrafts 
to  be  promoted  must  be  those  which  will  give  scope  to 
the  native  genius  and  aesthetic  sense.  But  unless  we 
can  thus  supply  the  demand  of  the  peasant-industry 
market  with  products  of  merit  or  distinctiveness,  we 
shall  fail  in  competition  with  the  hereditary  skill  and  old 
established  trade  of  peasant  proprietors  which  have 
solved  this  part  of  the  problem  generations  ago.  This 
involves  the  vigorous  application  of  a  class  of  in- 


THE  IRISH  HOME  53 

struction  of  which  something  will  be  said  in  the  proper 
place. 

So  far  the  rural  industry  problem,  and  the  direction  in 
which  its  solution  is  to  be  found,  are  fairly  clear.  But 
there  is  one  disadvantage  with  which  we  have  to  reckon, 
and  which  for  many  other  reasons  besides  the  one  I  am 
now  immediately  concerned  with,  we  must  seek  to  re- 
move. A  community  does  not  naturally  or  easily  produce 
for  export  that  for  which  it  has  itself  no  use,  taste,  or 
desire.  Whatever  latent  capacity  for  artistic  handicrafts 
the  Irish  peasant  may  possess,  it  is  very  rarely  that  one 
finds  any  spontaneous  attempt  to  give  outward  ex- 
pression to  the  inward  aesthetic  sense.  And  this  brings 
me  to  a  strange  aspect  of  Irish  life  to  which  I  have  often 
wished,  on  the  proper  occasion,  to  draw  public  attention. 
The  matter  arises  now  in  the  form  of  a  peculiar  difficulty 
which  lies  in  the  path  of  those  who  endeavour  to  solve 
the  problem  of  rural  life  in  Ireland,  and  which,  in  my 
belief,  has  profoundly  affected  the  fortunes  of  the  race 
both  at  home  and  abroad. 

To  a  sympathetic  insight  there  is  a  singular  and  signi- 
ficant void  in  the  Irish  conception  of  a  home — I  mean 
the  lack  of  appreciation  for  the  comforts  of  a  home, 
which  might  never  have  been  apparent  to  me  had  it  not 
obtruded  itself  in  the  form  of  a  hindrance  to  social  and 
economic  progress.*  In  the  Irish  love  of  home,  as  in 

*  It  is,  of  course,  unnecessary  for  me  to  dwell  upon  the  part  played 
by  the  home  in  the  standard  of  living,  especially  amongst  a  rural 
community.  But  it  may  not  be  irrelevant  to  note  that  M.  Desmolins, 
who,  in  his  remarkable  book,  A  quoi  tient  la  superiorite  des  Anglo- 


5  I  THE  IRISH  QUESTION   IN   IRELAND. 

the  larger  national  aspirations,  the  ideal  has  but  a 
meagre  material  basis,  its  appeal  being  essentially  to  the 
social  and  intellectual  instincts.  It  is  not  the  physical 
environment  and  comfort  of  an  orderly  home  that  en- 
chain and  attract  minds  still  dominated,  more  or  less 
unconsciously,  by  the  associations  and  common  interests 
of  the  primitive  clan,  but  rather  the  sense  of  human 
neighbourhood  and  kinship  which  the  individu?!  finds 
in  the  community.  Indeed  the  Irish  peasant  scarcely 
seems  to  have  a  home  in  the  sense  in  which  an  English- 
man understands  the  word.  If  he  love  the  place  of  his 
habitation  he  does  not  endeavour  to  improve  or  to  adorn 
it,  or  indeed  to  make  it  in  any  sense  a  reflection  of  his 
own  mind  and  taste.  He  treats  life  as  if  he  were  a  mere 
sojourner  upon  earth  whose  true  home  is  somewhere 
else,  a  fact  often  attributed  to  his  intense  faith  in  the 
unseen,  but  which  I  regard  as  not  merely  due  to  this 
cause,  but  also,  and  in  a  large  measure,  as  the  natural 
outcome  of  historical  conditions,  to  which  I  shall 
presently  refer. 

What  the  Irishman  is  really  attached  to  in  Ireland 
is  not  a  home  but  a  social  order.  The  pleasant 
amenities,  the  courtesies,  the  leisureliness,  the 
associations  of  religion,  and  the  familiar  faces  of 
the  neighbours,  whose  ways  and  minds  are  like  his  and 
very  unlike  those  of  any  other  people ;  these  are  the 
things  to  which  he  clings  in  Ireland  and  which  he 

saxi.ns  ?   hands  over  the  future  of  civilisation    to  the  Anglo-Saxons, 
ascribes  to  the  English  rural  home  much  of  the  success  of  the  race. 


THE    EMIGRATION    ILLUSION.  55 

remembers  in  exile.  And  the  rawness  and  eagerness  of 
America,  the  lust  of  the  eye  and  the  pride  of  life  that 
meet  him,  though  with  no  welcoming  aspect,  at  every 
turn,  the  sense  of  being  harshly  appraised  by  new 
standards  of  the  nature  of  which  he  has  but  the  dimmest 
conception,  his  helplessness  in  the  fierce  current  of  in- 
dustrial life  in  which  he  is  plunged,  the  climatic  extremes 
of  heat  and  cold,  the  early  hours  and  few  holidays :  all 
these  experiences  act  as  a  rude  shock  upon  the  ill-balanced 
refinement  of  the  Irish  immigrant.  Not  seldom,  he  or 
she  loses  heart  and  hope  and  returns  to  Ireland  mentally 
and  physically  a  wreck,  a  sad  disillusionment  to  those 
who  had  been  comforted  in  the  agony  of  the  leave- 
taking  by  the  assurance  that  to  emigrate  was  to  succeed. 
The  peculiar  Irish  conception  of  a  home  has  probably  a 
good  deal  to  do  with  the  history  of  the  Irish  in  the 
United  States.  It  is  well  known  that  whatever  measure 
of  success  the  Irish  emigrant  has  there  achieved  is  pre- 
eminently in  the  American  city,  and  not  where,  according 
to  all  the  usual  commonplaces  about  the  Irish  race,  they 
ought  to  have  succeeded,  in  American  rural  life.  There 
they  were  afforded,  and  there  they  missed,  the  greatest 
opportunity  which  ever  fell  to  the  lot  of  a  people  agricul- 
turally inclined.  During  the  days  of  the  great  emigra- 
tions from  Ireland,  a  veritable  Promised  Land,  rich 
beyond  the  dreams  of  agricultural  avarice,  was  gradu- 
ally opened  up  between  the  Alleghanies  and  the 
Rocky  Mountains,  which  the  Irish  had  only  to 
occupy  in  order  to  possess.  Making  all  allowances  for 


56  THE  IRISH  QUESTION   IN   IRELAND. 

the  depressing  influences  which  had  been  brought  to 
bear  upon  the  spirit  of  enterprise,  and  for  their  im- 
poverished condition,  I  am  convinced  that  a  prime  cause 
of  the  failure  of  almost  every  effort  to  settle  them  upon 
the  land  was  the  fact  that  the  tenement  house,  with  all  its 
domestic  abominations,  provided  the  social  order  which 
they  brought  with  them  from  Ireland,  and  the  lack  of 
which  on  the  western  prairie  no  immediate  or  prospective 
physical  comfort  could  make  good. 

Recently  a  daughter  of  a  small  farmer  in  County 
Galway  with  a  family  too  '  long '  for  the  means  of 
subsistence  available,  was  offered  a  comfortable  home 
on  a  farm  owned  by  some  better-off  relatives,  only 
thirty  miles  away,  though  probably  twenty  miles 
beyond  the  limits  of  her  utmost  peregrinations.  She 
elected  in  preference  to  go  to  New  York,  and  being 
asked  her  reason  by  a  friend  of  mine,  replied  in 
so  many  words,  '  because  it  is  nearer.'  She  felt 
she  would  be  less  of  a  stranger  in  a  New  York 
tenement  house,  among  her  relatives  and  friends  who 
had  already  emigrated,  than  in  another  part  of  County 
Galway.  Educational  science  in  Ireland  has  always 
ignored  the  life  history  of  the  subject  with  which  it 
dealt.  In  no  respect  has  this  neglect  been  so  uncon- 
sciously cruel  as  in  its  failure  to  implant  in  the  Irish 
mind  that  appreciation  of  the  material  aspects  of  the 
home  which  the  people  so  badly  need  both  in  Ireland 
and  in  America  If  the  Irishman  abroad  became  '  a 
rootless  colonist  of  alien  earth,'  the  lot  of  the  Irishman 


HOMELESSNESS    AT   HOME.  57 

in  Ireland  has  been  not  less  melancholy.  Sadness  there 
is,  indeed,  in  the  story  of  '  the  sea-divided  Gael,'  but,  to 
me,  it  is  incomparably  less  pathetic  than  their  homeless- 
ness  at  home. 

There  are,  as  I  have  said,  historic  reasons  for  the  Celtic 
view  of  home  to  which  my  personal  observation  and 
experience  has  induced  me  to  devote  so  much  space. 
The  Irish  people  have  never  had  the  opportunity 
of  developing  that  strong  and  salutary  individualism 
which,  amongst  other  things,  imperiously  demands,  as  a 
condition  of  its  growth,  a  home  that  shall  be  a  man's 
castle  as  well  as  his  abiding  place.  In  this,  as  in 
so  much  else,  a  healthy  evolution  was  constantly 
thwarted  by  the  clash  of  two  peoples  and  two  civilisa- 
tions. The  Irish  had  hardly  emerged  from  the  nomad 
pastoral  stage,  when  the  first  of  that  series  of  invasions, 
which  had  all  the  ferocity,  without  the  finality  of  con- 
quest, made  settled  life  impossible  over  the  greater  part 
of  the  island.  An  old  chronicle  throws  some  vivid  light 
upon  the  way  in  which  the  idea  of  home  life  presented 
itself  to  the  mind  of  the  clan  chiefs  as  late  as  the  days 
of  the  Tudors.  "  Con  O'Neal,"  we  are  told,  "  was  so 
right  Irish  that  he  cursed  all  his  posterity  in  case  they 
either  learnt  English,  sowed  wheat  or  built  them  houses  ; 
lest  the  first  should  breed  conversation,  the  second 
commerce,  and  with  the  last  they  should  speed  as  the 
crow  that  buildeth  her  nest  to  be  beaten  out  by  the 
hawk."*  The  penal  laws,  again,  acted  as  a  disin- 

*   Speed's  Chronicle,  quoted  in  Calendar  of  State  Papers,  Ireland, 
1611-14,  p.  xix. 


58  THE  IRISH  QUESTION   IN   IRELAND. 

tegrant  of  the  home  and  the  family ;  and,  finally,  the 
paralysing  effect  of  the  abuses  of  a  system  of  land  tenure, 
under  which  evidences  of  thrift  and  comfort  might  at  any 
time  become  determining  factors  in  the  calculation  of 
rent,  completed  a  series  of  causes  which,  in  unison  or 
isolation,  were  calculated  to  destroy  at  its  source  the 
growth  of  a  wholesome  domesticity.  These  causes 
happily,  no  longer  exist,  and  powerful  forces  are  arising 
to  overcome  the  defects  and  disadvantages  which  they 
have  bequeathed  to  us ;  and  I  have  little  doubt  that  it 
will  be  possible  to  deal  successfully  with  this  obstacle 
which  adds  so  peculiar  a  feature  to  the  problem  of  rural 
life  in  Ireland. 

If  I  have  dwelt  at  what  may  appear  to  be  a  dispropor- 
tionate length  upon  the  Irishman's  peculiar  conception  of 
a  home,  it  is  because  this  difficulty,  which  Irish  social  and 
economic  reformers  still  encounter,  and  with  which  they 
must  deal  sympathetically  if  they  are  to  succeed  in  the 
work  of  national  regeneration,  strikingly  illustrates  the 
two-sided  character  of  the  Irish  Question  and  the  never- 
to-be-forgotten  inter-dependence  of  the  sentimental  and 
the  practical  in  Ireland.  I  admit  that  this  condition  which 
adds  to  the  interest  of  the  problem,  and  perhaps  makes 
it  more  amenable  to  rapid  solution,  is  an  indication 
of  a  weakness  of  moral  fibre  to  which  must  be  largely 
attributed  our  failure  to  be  master  of  our  circumstances. 
Indeed,  as  I  come  into  closer  touch  with  the  efforts 
which  are  now  being  made  to  raise  the  material  condi- 
tion of  the  people,  the  more  convinced  I  become,  much 


A  PROBLEM  OF  CHARACTER.  59 

as  my  practical  training  has  made  me  resist  the  con- 
viction, that  the  Irish  Question  is,  in  its  most  difficult 
and  most  important  aspects,  the  problem  of  the  Irish 
mind,  and  that  the  solution  of  this  problem  is  to  be 
found  in  the  strengthening-  of  Irish  character. 

With  this  enunciation  of  the  main  proposition  of  my 
book,  I  may  now  indicate  the  order  in  which  I  shall 
endeavour  to  establish  its  truth.  I  have  said  enough  to 
show  that  I  do  not  ignore  the  historical  causes  of  our 
present  state ;  but  with  so  many  facts  with  which  we 
can  deal  confronting  us,  I  propose  to  review  the  chief 
living  influences  to  which  the  Irish  mind  and  character 
are  still  subjected.  These  influences  fall  naturally  into 
three  distinct  categories  and  will  be  treated  in  the  three 
succeeding  chapters.  The  first  will  show  the  effect  upon 
the  Irish  mind  of  its  obsession  by  politics.  The  next  will 
deal  with  the  influence  of  religious  systems  upon  the 
secular  life  of  the  people.  I  shall  then  show  how  educa- 
tion, which  should  not  only  have  been  the  most  potent  of 
all  the  three  influences  in  bringing  our  national  life  into 
line  with  the  progress  of  the  age,  but  should  also  have 
modified  the  operation  of  the  other  two  causes,  has 
aggravated  rather  than  cured  the  malady. 

Whatever  impression  I  may  succeed  in  making  upon 
others,  I  may  here  state  that,  as  the  result  of  observation 
and  reflection,  the  conclusion  has  been  forced  upon  me 
that  the  Irish  mind  is  suffering  from  considerable 
functional  derangement,  but  not,  so  far  as  I  can  discern, 
from  any  organic  disease.  This  is  the  basis  of  my 


6O  THE  IRISH   QUESTION    IN    IRELAND. 

optimism.  I  shall  submit  in  another  chapter,  which  will 
conclude  the  first,  the  critical  part  of  my  book,  certain 
new  principles  of  treatment  which  are  indicated  by  the 
diagnosis ;  and  I  would  ask  the  reader,  before  he  rejects 
the  opinions  which  are  there  expressed,  to  persevere 
through  the  narrative  contained  in  the  second  part  of  the 
book.  There  he  will  find  in  process  of  solution  some  of 
the  problems  which  I  have  indicated,  and  the  principles 
for  which  a  theoretical  approval  has  been  asked,  in 
practical  operation,  and  already  passing  out  of  the 
experimental  stage.  The  story  of  the  Self-help  Move- 
ment will  strike  the  note  of  Ireland's  economic  hopes. 
The  action  of  the  Recess  Committee  will  be  explained, 
and  the  concession  of  their  demand  by  the  establishment 
of  a  '  Department  of  Agriculture  and  other  rural  indus- 
tries and  for  Technical  Instruction  for  Ireland,'  will  be 
described.  This  will  complete  the  story  of  a  quiet, 
unostentatious  movement  which  will  some  day  be  seen  to 
have  made  the  last  decade  of  the  nineteenth  century 
a  fit  prelude  to  a  future  commensurate  with  the 
potentialities  of  the  Irish  people. 


CHAPTER  III. 
THE  INFLUENCE  OF  POLITICS  UPON  THE  IRISH  MIND. 

Among  the  humours  of  the  Home  Rule  struggle,  the 
story  was  current  in  England  that  a  peasant  in  Con- 
nemara  ceased  planting  his  potatoes  when  the  news  of 
the  introduction  of  the  Home  Rule  Bill  in  1886  seemed 
to  bring  the  millenium  into  the  region  of  practical 
politics.  Those  who  used  the  story  were  not  slow  to 
suggest  that,  had  the  Bill  become  law,  the  failure  of 
spontaneous  generation  in  the  Connemara  potato  patch 
might  have  been  typical  of  much  analogous  disillusion- 
ment elsewhere.  Even  to  those  who  are  familiar 
with  our  history,  the  faith  of  the  Irish  people  in  the 
potentialities  of  government,  which  this  little  tale  illus- 
trates by  caricature,  will  give  cause  for  reflection  of 
another  and  more  serious  kind.  The  moral  to  be  drawn 
by  Irish  politicians  is  that  we  in  Ireland  have  yet  to 
free  ourselves  from  one  of  the  worst  legacies  of  past 
misgovernment,  the  belief  that  any  legislation  or  any 
legislature  can  provide  an  escape  from  the  physical  and 
mental  toil  imposed  through  our  first  parents  upon  all 
nations  for  all  time. 

'  The  more  business  in  politics,  and  the  less  politics  in 
business,  the  better  for  both/  is  a  maxim  which  I  brought 


62  INFLUENCE  OF   POLITICS  UPON  THE   IRISH  MIND. 

home  from  the  Far  West  and  ventured  to  advocate  publicly 
some  years  ago.  Being  still  of  the  same  mind,  I  regret 
that  I  am  compelled  to  introduce  a  whole  chapter  of 
politics  into  this  book,  which  is  a  study  of  Irish  affairs 
mainly  from  a  social  and  economic  point  of  view. 
But  to  ignore,  either  in  the  diagnosis  or  in  the  treatment 
of  the  '  mind  diseased,'  the  political  obsession  of  our 
national  life  would  be  about  as  wise  as  to  discuss  and 
plan  a  Polar  expedition  without  taking  account  of  the 
climatic  conditions  to  be  encountered. 

In  such  an  examination  of  Irish  politics  as  thus  be- 
comes necessary  I  shall  have  to  devote  the  greater  part 
of  my  criticism  to  the  influence  of  the  Nationalist  party 
upon  the  Irish  mind.  But  it  will  be  seen  that  this  course 
is  not  taken  with  a  view  to  making  party  capital  for  my 
own  side.  As  I  read  Irish  history,  neither  party  need 
expect  very  much  credit  for  more  than  good  intentions. 
Whichever  proves  to  be  right  in  its  main  contention,  each 
will  have  to  bear  its  share  of  the  responsibility  for  the 
long  continuance  of  the  barren  controversy.  Each  has 
neglected  to  concern  itself  with  the  settlement  of  vitally 
important  questions  the  consideration  of  which  need  not 
have  been  postponed  because  the  constitutional  question 
still  remained  in  dispute.  Therefore,  though  I  seem 
to  throw  upon  the  Nationalist  party  the  chief  blame  for 
our  present  political  backwardness,  and,  so  far  as  politics 
affect  other  spheres  of  national  activity,  for  our  industrial 
depression,  candour  compels  me  to  admit  that  Irish 
Unionism  has  failed  to  recognise  its  obligation — aa 


IRISH    UNIONISM.  63 

obligation  recognised  by  the  Unionist  party  in  Great 
Britain — to  supplement  opposition  to  Home  Rule  with  a 
positive  and  progressive  policy  which  could  have  been 
expected  to  commend  itself  to  the  majority  of  the  Irish 
people — the  Irish  of  the  Irish  Question. 

To  my  own  party  in  Ireland  then,  I  would  first  direct 
the  reader's  attention.  I  have  already  referred  to  the 
deplorable  effects  produced  upon  national  life  by  the 
exclusion  of  representatives  of  the  landlord  and  the  indus- 
trial classes  from  positions  of  leadership  and  trust  over 
four-fifths  of  the  country.  I  cannot  conceive  of  a  pros- 
perous Ireland  in  which  the  influence  of  these  leaders  is 
restricted  within  its  present  bounds.  It  has  been  so 
restricted  because  the  Irish  Unionist  party  has  failed  to 
produce  a  policy  which  could  attract,  at  any  rate, 
moderate  men  from  the  other  side,  and  we  have,  there- 
fore, to  consider  why  we  have  so  failed.  Until  this  is 
done,  we  shall  continue  to  share  the  blame  for  the 
miserable  state  of  our  political  life  which,  at  the  end  of 
the  nineteenth  century,  appeared  to  have  made  but  little 
advance  from  the  time  when  Bishop  Berkeley  asked 
'  Whether  our  parties  are  not  a  burlesque  upon  politics.' 

The  Irish  Unionist  party  is  supposed  to  unite  all 
who,  like  the  author,  are  opposed  to  the  plunge  into 
what  is  called  Home  Rule.  But  its  propagandist 
activities  in  Ireland  are  confined  to  preaching  the 
doctrine  of  the  status  quo,  and  preaching  it  only  to  its 
own  side.  From  the  beginning  the  party  has  been  inti- 
mately connected  with  the  landlord  class ;  yet  even  upon 


64  INFLUENCE  OF   POLITICS  UPON  THE   IRISH  MIND. 

the  land  question  it  has  thrown  but  few  gleams  of  the 
constructive  thought  which  that  question  so  urgently 
demanded,  and  which  it  might  have  been  expected  to 
apply  to  it.  Now  and  again  an  individual  tries  to 
broaden  the  basis  of  Irish  Unionism  and  to  bring  him- 
self into  touch  with  the  life  of  the  people.  But  the 
nearer  he  gets  to  the  people  the  farther  he  gets  from 
the  Irish  Unionist  leaders.  The  lot  of  such  an  individual 
is  not  a  happy  one :  he  is  regarded  as  a  mere  intruder 
who  does  not  know  the  rules  of  the  game,  and  he  is 
treated  by  the  leading  players  on  both  sides  like  a  dog 
in  a  tennis  court. 

Two  main  causes  appear  to  me  to  account  for  the 
failure  of  the  Irish  Unionist  party  to  make  itself  an 
effective  force  in  Irish  national  life.  The  great  mis- 
understanding to  which  I  have  attributed  the  unhappy 
state  of  Anglo-Irish  relations  kept  the  country  in  a  condi- 
tion of  turmoil  which  enabled  the  Unionist  party  to  de- 
clare itself  the  party  of  law  and  order.  Adopting  Lord 
Salisbury  s  famous  prescription,  '  twenty  years  of  resolute 
government,'  they  made  it  what  its  author  would  have 
been  the  last  man  to  consider  it,  a  sufficient  justifi- 
cation for  a  purely  negative  and  repressive  policy. 
Such  an  attitude  was  open  to  somewhat  obvious 
objections.  No  one  will  dispute  the  proposition 
that  the  government  of  Ireland,  or  of  any  other  country, 
should  be  resolute,  but  twenty  years  of  resolute  govern- 
ment, in  the  narrow  sense  in  which  it  came  to  be  inter- 
preted, needed  for  its  success,  what  cannot  be  had  under 


'  POLICY   OR   POLICE  '?  65 

party  government,  twenty  years  of  consistency.  It  may 
be  better  to  be  feared  than  to  be  loved,  but  Machiavelli 
would  have  been  the  first  to  admit  that  his  principle  did 
not  apply  where  the  Government  which  sought  to 
establish  fear  had  to  reckon  with  an  Opposition  which 
was  making  capital  out  of  love.  Moreover,  the  sugges- 
tion that  the  Irish  Question  is  not  a  matter  of  policy  but 
of  police,  while  by  no  means  without  influential  adherents, 
is  altogether  vicious.  You  cannot  physically  intimidate 
Irishmen,  and  the  last  thing  you  want  to  do  is  morally  to 
intimidate  a  people  whose  greatest  need  at  the  moment 
is  moral  courage. 

The  second  cause  which  determined  the  character  of 
Irish  Unionism  was  the  linking  of  the  agrarian  with  the 
political  question ;  the  one  being,  in  effect,  a  practical, 
the  other  a  sentimental  issue.  The  same  thing  happened 
in  the  Nationalist  party ;  but  on  their  side  it  was 
intentional  and  led  to  an  immense  accession  of  strength, 
while  on  the  Unionist  side  it  made  for  weakness. 
If  the  influence  of  Irish  Unionists  was  to  be  even 
maintained,  it  was  of  vital  importance  that  the 
interest  of  a  class  should  not  be  allowed  to  dominate 
the  policy  of  the  party.  But  the  organisation  which 
ought  to  have  rallied  every  force  that  Ireland  could 
contribute  to  the  cause  of  imperial  unity  came  to 
be  too  closely  identified  with  the  landlord  class. 
That  class  is  admittedly  essential  to  the  constrnction  of 
any  real  national  life.  But  there  is  another  element 

equally  essential,  to  which  the  political  leaders  of  Irish 

F 


66  INFLUENCE  OF  POLITICS  UPON  THE  IRISH  MIND. 

Unionism  have  not  given  the  prominence  which  is 
its  due.  The  Irish  Question  has  been  so  success- 
fully narrowed  down  to  two  simple  policies,  one 
positive  but  vague,  the  other  negative  but  definite,  that 
to  suggest  that  there  are  three  distinct  forces — three 
distinct  interests — to  be  taken  into  account  seems  like 
confusing  the  issue.  It  is  a  fact,  nevertheless,  that 
a  very  important  element  on  the  Unionist  side,  the  indus- 
trial element,  has  been  practically  left  out  of  the  calcula- 
tion by  both  sides.  Yet  the  only  expression  of  real 
political  thought  which  I  have  observed  in  Ireland,  since 
I  have  been  in  touch  with  Irish  life,  has  emanated  from 
the  Ulster  Liberal-Unionist  Association,  whose  weighty 
pronouncements,  published  from  time  to  time,  are 
worthy  of  deep  consideration  by  all  interested  in  the 
welfare  of  Ireland. 

It  will  be  remembered  that  when  the  Home  Rule  con- 
troversy was  at  its  height,  the  chief  strength  of  the  Irish 
opposition  to  Mr.  Gladstone's  policy,  and  the  consideration 
which  most  weighed  with  the  British  electorate,  lay  in  the 
business  objection  of  the  industrial  population  of  Ulster  ; 
though  on  the  platform  religious  and  political  arguments 
were  more  often  heard.  The  intensely  practical  nature 
of  the  objection  which  came  from  the  commercial  and 
industrial  classes  of  the  North  who  opposed  Home  Rule 
was  never  properly  recognised  in  Ireland.  It  was,  and  is 
still  unanswered.  Briefly  stated,  the  position  taken  up  by 
their  spokesmen  was  as  follows  : — '  We  have  come,'  they 
said  in  effect,  '  into  Ireland,  and  not  the  richest  portion 


ULSTER  AND  HOME  RULE.  6/ 

of  the  island,  and  have  gradually  built  up  an  industry 
and  commerce  with  which  we  are  able  to  hold  our 
own  in  competition  with  the  most  progressive  nations 
in  the  world.  Our  success  has  been  achieved  under 
a  system  and  a  polity  in  which  we  believe.  Its  non- 
interference with  the  business  of  the  people  gave  play 
to  that  self-reliance  with  which  we  strove  to  emulate 
the  industrial  qualities  of  the  people  of  Great  Britain. 
It  is  now  proposed  to  place  the  manufactures  and  com- 
merce of  the  country  at  the  mercy  of  a  majority  which 
will  have  no  real  concern  in  the  interests  vitally  affected, 
and  who  have  no  knowledge  of  the  science  of  govern- 
ment. The  mere  shadow  of  these  changes  has  so 
depressed  the  stocks  which  represent  the  accumulations 
of  our  past  enterprise  and  labour  that  we  are  already 
commercially  poorer  than  we  were.'* 

My  sole  criticism  of  those  leaders  of  commerce  and 
industry  in  Belfast,  who,  whenever  they  turn  their  atten- 
tion from  their  various  pre-occupations,  import  into  Irish 
politics  the  valuable  qualities  which  they  display  in  the 
conduct  of  their  private  affairs,  is  that  they  do  not  go 
further  and  take  the  necessary  steps  to  give  practical 
effect  to  their  views  outside  the  ranks  of  their  immediate 
associates  and  followers.  Had  the  industrial  section 
made  its  voice  heard  in  the  councils  of  the  Irish  Unionist 

*  This  view  of  the  case  was  powerfully  stated  by  the  deputation  from 
the  Belfast  Chamber  of  Commerce  which  waited  on  Mr.  Gladstone  in 
the  spring  of  1893.  They  pointed  out  inter  alia  that  the  members  of 
the  deputation  were  poorer  by  thousands  of  pounds  owing  to  the  fall 
in  Irish  stocks  consequent  upon  the  introduction  of  the  Home  Rule  Bill 
in  that  year. 


68          INFLUENCE  OF  POLITICS  UPON  THE  IRISH  MIND. 

party,  the  Government  which  that  party  supports  might 
have  had  less  advice  and  assistance  in  the  maintenance  of 
law  and  order,  but  it  would  have  had  invaluable  aid  in  its 
constructive  policy.  For  the  lack  of  the  wise  guidance 
which  our  captains  of  industry  should  have  provided, 
Irish  Unionism  has,  by  too  close  adherence  to  the  tradi- 
tions of  the  landlord  section,  been  the  creed  of  a  social 
caste  rather  than  a  policy  in  Ireland.  The  result  has  been 
injurious  alike  for  the  landlords,  the  leaders  of  industry, 
and  the  people.  The  policy  of  the  Unionist  party  in 
Ireland  has  been  to  uphold  the  Union  by  force  rather 
than  by  a  reconciliation  of  the  people  to  it.  It  has 
held  aloof  from  the  masses,  who,  bereft  of  the  guidance 
of  their  natural  leaders,  have  clung  the  more  closely  to 
the  chiefs  of  the  Nationalist  party ;  and  these  in  their 
turn  have  not,  as  I  shall  show  presently,  risen  to  their 
responsibility,  but  have  retarded  rather  than  advanced 
the  march  of  democracy  in  Ireland.  If  there  is  to  be  any 
future  for  Unionism  in  Ireland,  there  must  be  a  com- 
bination of  the  best  thought  of  the  country  aristocracy 
and  that  of  the  captains  of  industry.  Then,  and  not  till 
then,  shall  we  Unionists  as  a  party  exercise  a  healthful 
and  stimulating  influence  on  the  thought  and  action  of 
the  people. 

I  cannot,  therefore,  escape  from  the  conclusion  that 
whilst  the  Irish  section  of  the  party  to  which  I  belong  is, 
in  my  opinion,  right  on  the  main  political  question,  its 
influence  is  now  for  the  most  part  negative.  Hence  I 
direct  attention  mainly  to  the  Home  Rule  party,  as  the 


NATIONALISM    AND    PROGRESS.  o, 

more  forceful  element  in  Irish  political  life ;  and  if  it 
receives  the  more  criticism  it  is  because  it  is  more  closely 
in  touch  with  the  people,  and  because  any  reform  in  its 
principles  or  methods  would  more  generally  and  more 
rapidly  prove  beneficial  to  the  country  than  would  any 
change  in  Unionist  policy. 

In  examining  the  policy  of  the  Nationalist  party  my 
chief  concern  will  be  to  arrive  at  a  correct  estimate  of 
the  effect  which  is  produced  upon  the  thought  and  action 
of  the  Irish  people  by  the  methods  employed  for  the 
attainment  of  Home  Rule.  I  propose  to  show  that 
these  methods  have  been  in  the  past,  and  must, 
so  long  as  they  are  employed,  continue  to  be  injurious 
to  the  political  and  industrial  character  of  the  people, 
and  consequently  a  barrier  to  progress.  I  know 
that  most  of  the  Nationalist  leaders  justify  the  employ- 
ment of  these  methods  on  the  ground  that,  in  their 
opinion,  the  constitutional  reforms  they  advocate  are  a 
condition  precedent  to  industrial  progress.  I  believe,  on 
the  contrary,  and  I  shall  give  my  reasons  for  believing, 
that  their  tactics  have  been  not  only  a  hindrance  to 
industrial  progress,  but  destructive  even  to  the  ulterior 
purpose  they  were  intended  to  fulfil. 

It  is  commonly  believed — a  belief  very  naturally 
fostered  by  their  leaders — that,  if  there  is  one  thing  the 
Irish  do  understand,  it  is  politics.  Politics  is  a  term 
obviously  capable  of  wide  interpretation,  and  I  fear  that 
those  who  say  that  my  countrymen  are  pre-eminently 
politicians  use  the  term  in  a  sense  more  applicable  to 


70  INFLUENCE  OF  POLITICS  UPON  THE  IRISH  MIND. 

the  conceptions  of  Mr.  Richard  Croker  than  of  Aristotle. 
In  intellectual  capacity  for  discrimination  upon  political 
issues  the  average  Irish  elector  is,  I  believe,  far  superior 
to  the  average  English  elector.  But  there  is  as  yet 
something  wanting  in  the  character  of  our  people  which 
seems  to  prohibit  the  exercise  by  them  of  any  inde- 
pendent political  thought  and,  consequently,  of  any 
effective  or  permanent  political  influence. 

The  assumption  that  Irishmen  are  singularly  good 
politicians  seems  to  stand  seriously  in  the  way  of  their 
becoming  so ;  and  yet  it  is  a  matter  of  the  greatest 
importance  that  they  should  become  good  politicians  in 
a  real  sense,  for  in  no  country  would  sound  political 
thought  exercise  a  more  beneficial  influence  upon  the 
life  of  the  people  than  in  Ireland.  Indeed  I  would  go 
further  and  give  it  as  my  strong  conviction  that,  properly 
developed  and  freed  from  the  narrowing  influences  of 
the  party  squabbles  by  which  it  has  been  warped  and 
sterilised,  the  political  thought  of  the  Irish  people  would 
contribute  a  factor  of  vital  importance  to  the  life  of  the 
British  empire.  But  at  the  moment  I  am  dealing  only 
with  the  influence  of  politics  on  Irish  social  and  economic 
life. 

I  am  aware  that  any  political  deficiencies  which  the 
Irish  may  display  at  home,  are  commonly  attributed  to 
the  political  system  which  has  been  imposed  upon 
Ireland  from  without.  If  you  want  to  see  Irish 
genius  in  its  highest  political  manifestation,  it  must 
be  studied,  we  are  told,  in  the  United  States,  the 


THE    SCOTCH-IRISH    IN   AMERICA.  71 

widest  and  freest  arena  which  has  ever  been  offered  to 
tiie  race.  This  view  is  not  in  accordance  with  the 
facts  as  I  have  observed  them.  These  facts  are 
somewhat  obscured  by  the  natural,  but  misleading  habit 
of  reckoning  to  the  account  of  Ireland  at  large  achieve- 
ments really  due  to  the  Scotch-Irish,  who  helped  to 
colonise  Pennsylvania,  and  who  undoubtedly  played  a 
dominant  part  in  developing  the  characteristic  features 
of  the  American  political  system.  The  Scotch-Irish,  how- 
ever, do  not  belong  to  the  Ireland  of  the  Irish  Question. 
Descended,  largely,  as  their  names  so  often  testify,  from 
the  early  Irish  colonists  of  western  Scotland,  they  came 
back  as  a  distinct  race,  dissociating  themselves  from 
the  Irish  Celts  by  refusing  to  adopt  their  national  tradi- 
tions, or  intermarry  with  them,  and  both  here  and  in 
America  disclaiming  the  appellation  of  Irish.* 

Leaving,  then,  out  of  consideration  the  political 
achievements  of  the  Scotch-Irish,  it  appears  to  me  that 
the  part  played  in  politics  by  the  Irish  in  America  does 
not  testify  to  any  high  political  genius.  They  have  shown 
there  an  extraordinary  aptitude  for  political  organ- 
isation, which,  if  it  had  been  guided  by  anything  ap- 
proaching to  political  thought,  would  have  placed  them 
in  a  far  higher  position  in  American  public  life  than  that 

*  The  term  '  Scotch-Irish  '  does  not  mean  an  amalgam  of  Scotch 
and  Irish,  but  a  race  of  Scottish  immigrants  who  settled  in  north- 
east Ireland.  I  may  point  out  that  in  these  criticisms  of  Irish-American 
politics  I  rsfer,  of  course,  mainly  to  the  Irish-born  immigrants  and  not 
to  the  Irish,  Scotch-Irish  or  other,  who  are  American-born.  Nobody 
can  have  a  higher  appreciation  than  I  of  the  great  part  played  by  the 
American-Irish  once  they  have  assimilated  the  full  spirit  of  American 
institutions. 


72  INFLUENCE  OF   POLITICS  UPON  THE   IRISH   MIND. 

which  they  now  occupy.  But  the  fact  is  that  it  would 
be  much  easier  to  find  evidence  of  high  political  capacity 
and  success  in  the  history  of  the  Irish  in  British  colonies  ; 
and  the  reason  for  this  fact  is  not  only  very 
germane  to  the  purpose  of  this  book,  but  has  a  strong 
practical  interest  for  Americans  as  well.  Irishmen  when 
they  go  to  America  find  themselves  united  by  a  bond 
which  does  not  and  could  not  exist  in  the  Colonies — 
though  it  does  exist  in  Ireland — the  bond  of  anti- 
English  feeling,  and  by  the  hope  of  giving  practical 
effect  to  this  feeling  through  the  policy  of 
their  adopted  country.  Imbued  with  this  common 
sentiment,  and  influenced  by  their  inherited  clan- 
nishness,  the  Irish  in  America  readily  lend  them- 
selves to  the  system  of  political  groups,  a  system  which 
the  '  boss '  for  his  own  ends  seeks  to  perpetuate.  The 
result  is  a  sort  of  political  paradox — it  has  made  the 
Irish  in  America  both  stronger  and  weaker  than  they 
ought  to  be.  They  suffer  politically  from  the  defects  of 
their  political  qualities :  they  are  strong  as  a  voting 
machine,  but  the  secret  of  their  collective  strength  is  also 
the  secret  of  their  individual  weakness.  This  organisa- 
tion into  groups  is  much  commoner  among  the  Irish 
than  among  other  American  immigrants,  for  the  anti- 
English  feeling  with  which  so  many  of  the  Irish  land  in 
America  is  carefully  kept  alive  by  the  'boss,'  whose 
sedulous  fostering  of  the  instinctive  clannishness  and 
inherited  leader-following  habits  of  the  Irish  saps  their 
independence  of  thought  and  prevents  them  from 


ACHIEVEMENTS  OF  THE  IRISH  IN  THE  STATES.  73 

ceasing  to  be  mere  political  agents  and  developing  a 
citizenship  which  would  furnish  its  due  quota  of  states- 
men to  the  service  of  the  Republic.  They  lack  in  the 
United  States  just  what  they  lack  at  home,  the  capacity, 
or  at  any  rate  the  inclination,  to  use  their  undoubted 
abilities  in  a  large  and  foreseeing  manner,  and  so  are 
becoming  less  and  less  powerful  as  a  force  in  American 
politics. 

The  fallacious  views  about  the  nature  and  sphere  of 
politics,  which  the  Irish  bring  with  them  from  Ireland, 
and  which  are  perpetuated  in  America,  have  the  effect  not 
only  of  debarring  the  Irish  from  real  political  progress, 
but  also,  as  at  home,  from  gaining  success  in  industrial 
pursuits  which  their  talents  would  otherwise  win  for 
them.  They  succeed  as  journalists  owing  to  their  quick 
intelligence  and  versatility,  and  as  contractors  mainly 
owing  to  their  capacity  for  organising  gangs  of  workmen 
— a  faculty  which  seems  to  be  the  only  good  thing  result- 
ing from  their  political  education.  They  are  as  brilliant 
soldiers  in  the  service  of  the  United  States  as  they  are  in 
that  of  Britain — more  it  would  be  impossible  to  say — and 
they  have  produced  types  of  daring,  endurance,  and 
shrewdness  like  the  '  Silver  Kings '  of  Nevada  which 
testify  to  the  exceptional  powers  always  developed  by  the 
Irish  in  exceptional  circumstances.  But  in  the  humdrum 
business  of  everyday  life  in  the  United  States  they  suffer 
from  defects  which  are  the  outcome  of  their  devotion  to 
mistaken  political  ideals  and  of  their  subordination 
of  industry  to  politics,  which  are  not  always  purely 


74  INFLUENCE  OF   POLITICS  UPON  THE  IRISH   MIND. 

American,  but  are  often  influenced  by  considerations  ol 
the  country  of  their  birth.  On  the  whole,  a  quarter  of  a 
century  of  not  unsympathetic  observation  of  the  Irish  in 
the  United  States  has  convinced  me  that  the  position 
they  occupy  there  is  not  one  which  either  they  or  the 
American  people  can  look  on  with  entire  satisfaction. 
The  Irish  immigrants  are  felt  to  belong  to  a  kind  of 
imperium  in  imperio,  and  to  carry  into  American  politics 
ideas  which  are  not  American,  and  which  might  easily 
become  an  embarrassment  if  not  a  danger  to  America. 
Hence  the  powerful  interest  which  America  shares  with 
England,  though  of  course  in  a  less  degree,  in  under- 
standing and  helping  to  settle  the  complex  difficulty 
called  the  Irish  Question.  The  Irish  remember  Ireland 
long  after  they  have  left  it.  They  are  not  in  the  same 
position  as  the  German  or  English  immigrants  who  have 
no  cause  at  home  which  they  wish  to  forward.  Every 
echo  in  the  States  of  political  or  social  disturbance  in 
Ireland  rouses  the  immigrant  and  he  becomes  an  Irishman 
once  more,  and  not  a  citizen  of  the  country  of  his  adop- 
tion. His  views  and  votes  on  international  questions,  in 
so  far  as  they  affect  these  Islands,  are  thus  often  dictated 
more  by  a  passionate  sympathy  for  and  remembrance  of 
the  land  he  no  longer  lives  in,  than  by  any  right  under- 
standing of  the  interests  of  the  new  country  in  which 
he  and  his  children  must  live. 

The  only  reason  why  I  have  examined  the  assumption 
that  Irishmen  display  marked  political  capacity  in  the 
United  States  is  to  make  it  clear  that  the  political  deft- 


POLITICS    AND    HISTORY.  75 

ciencies  they  manifest  at  home  are  to  be  attributed  mainly 
to  defects  of  character,  and  to  a  conception  of  politics 
for  which  modern  English  government  is  very  slightly 
responsible.     I  admit  that  English  government  in  the 
past  had  no  small  share  in  producing  the  results  we 
deplore  to-day,  but  the  motives  and  manner  of  its  action 
have,  it  seems  to  me,  been  very  imperfectly  understood 
The  fact  is  that  the  difficulties  of  English  government 
in  Ireland,  until  a  complete  military  conquest  had  been 
effected,  were  of  a  peculiarly  complex  character.    Before 
the    English    could    impose    upon    Ireland    their    own 
political  organisation — and  the  idea  that  any  other  system 
could  work  better  among  the  Irish  never  entered  the 
English  mind — it  was  obviously  necessary  that  the  very 
antithesis  of  that  organisation,  the  clan  system,  should 
be    abolished.       But   there    were  military  and  financial 
objections  to  carrying  out  this  policy.     Irish  campaigns 
were  very  costly,  and  England  was  in  those  days  by  no 
means  wealthy.     English  armies  in  Ireland,  after  a  short 
period  spent    in    desultory  warfare    with    light    armed 
kernes  in  the  fever-stricken  Munster  forests,  began  to 
melt  away.     For  many  generations,  therefore,  England, 
adopting  a  policy  of  divide  et  impera,  set  clan  against 
clan.     Later  on,  statecraft  may  be  said  to  have  super- 
vened upon  military  tactics.     It  consisted  of  attempts 
made   by  alternate   threats   and   bribes   to   induce   the 
chiefs  to  transform  the  clan  organisation  by  the  accept- 
ance   of    English    institutions.      But    any    systematic 
endeavours  to  complete  the  transformation  were  soon 


j6  INFLUENCE  OF   POLITICS  UPON  THE  IRISH   MIND. 

rendered  abortive  by  being  coupled  with  huge  confisca- 
tions of  land.  The  policy  of  converting  the  members 
of  the  clans  into  freeholders  was  subordinated  to  the 
policy  of  planting  British  colonists.  After  this  there  was 
no  question  of  fusion  of  races  or  institutions.  Plantations 
on  a  large  scale,  self-supporting,  self-protecting,  became 
the  policy  alike  of  the  soldier  and  the  statesman. 

The  inevitable  result  of  these  methods  was  that  it  was 
not  until  a  comparatively  late  date  that  a  political  con- 
ception of  an  Irish  nation  first  began  to  emerge  out  of 
the  congeries  of  clans.  In  the  State  Papers  of  the 
sixteenth  century  the  clans  are  frequently  spoken  of  as 
'  nations.'  Even  as  late  as  the  eighteenth  century  a 
Gaelic  poet,  in  a  typical  lament,  thus  identifies  his 
country  with  the  fortunes  of  her  great  families : — 

The  O'Doherty  is  not  holding  sway,  nor  his  noble  race; 
The  O'Moores  are  not  strong,  that  once  were  brave — 
O'Flaherty  is  not  in  power,  nor  his  kinsfolk  ; 
And  sooth  to  say,  the  O'Briens  have  long  since  become  English. 

Of  O'Rourke  there  is  no  mention — my  sharp  wounding  ! 
Nor  yet  of  O'Donnell  in  Erin  ; 

The  Geraldines  they  are  without  vigour — without  a  nod, 
And  the  Burkes,  the  Barrys,  the  Walshes  of  the  slender  ships,* 

The  modern  political  idea  of  Irish  nationality  at 
length  asserted  itself  as  the  result  of  three  main  causes. 
The  bond  of  a  common  grievance  against  the  English 
foe  was  created  by  the  gradual  abandonment  of  the 
policy  of  setting  clan  against  clan  in  favour  of  impartial 

*  Poems  of  Egan  O'Rahilly.  Edited,  with  translation,  by  the 
Rev.  P.  S.  Dinneen,  M.A.,  for  the  Irish  Texts  Society,  p.  u. 
O'Rahilly's  charge  against  Cromwell  is  that  he  "gave  plenty  to  the 
man  with  the  flail,"  but  beggared  the  great  lords,  p.  167. 


CONCEPTION   OF  A  UNITED   IRELAND.  77 

confiscation  of  land  from  friendly  as  well  as  from  hostile 
chiefs.  Secondly,  when  the  English  had  destroyed  the 
natural  leaders,  the  clan  chiefs,  and  attempted  to  prosely- 
tise their  adherents,  the  political  leadership  largely 
passed  to  the  Roman  Catholic  Church,  which  very 
naturally  defended  the  religion  common  to  the  members 
of  all  the  clans,  by  trying  to  unite  them  against  the 
English  enemy.  Nationality,  in  this  sense,  of  course 
applied  only  to  Celtic  Roman  Catholic  Ireland.  The 
first  real  idea  of  a  United  Ireland  arose  out  of  the  third 
cause,  the  religious  grievances  of  the  Protestant  dis- 
senters and  the  commercial  grievances  of  the  Protestant 
manufacturers  and  artisans  in  the  eighteenth  century, 
who  suffered  under  a  common  disability  with  the  Roman 
Catholics,  and  many  of  whom  came  in  the  end  to 
make  common  cause  with  them.  But  even  long  after 
this  conception  had  become  firmly  established,  the 
local  representative  institutions  corresponding  to  those 
which  formed  the  political  training  of  the  English  in 
law  and  administration  either  did  not  exist  in  Ireland  or 
were  altogether  in  the  hands  of  a  small  aristocracy, 
mostly  of  non-Irish  origin,  and  wholly  non-Catholic. 
O'Connell's  great  work  in  freeing  Roman  Catholic 
Ireland  from  the  domination  of  the  Protestant  oligarchy 
showed  the  people  the  power  of  combination,  but  his 
methods  can  hardly  be  said  to  have  fostered  political 
thought.  The  efforts  in  this  direction  of  men  like 
Gavan  Duffy,  Davis,  and  Lucas  were  neutralised  by  the 
Famine,  the  after  effects  of  which  also  did  much  to 


78  INFLUENCE  OF  POLITICS  UPON  THE  IRISH  MIND. 

thwart  Butt's  attempts  to  develop  serious  public  opinion 
amongst  a  people  whose  political  education  had  been  so 
long  delayed.  The  prospect  of  any  early  fruition  of 
such  efforts  vanished  with  the  revolutionary  agrarian 
propaganda,  and  independent  thinking — so  necessary  in 
the  modern  democratic  state — never  replaced  the  old 
leader-following  habit  which  continued  until  the  climax 
was  reached  under  Parnell. 

The  political  backwardness  of  the  Irish  people  re- 
vealed itself  characteristically  when,  in  1884,  the  English 
and  Irish  democracies  were  simultaneously  endowed  with 
a  greatly  extended  franchise.  In  theory  this  concession 
should  have  developed  political  thought  in  the  people 
and  should  have  enhanced  their  sense  of  political  respon- 
sibility. In  England  no  doubt  this  theory  was  proved  by 
the  event  to  be  based  on  fact ;  but  in  Ireland  it  was 
otherwise.  Parnell  was  at  the  zenith  of  his  power.  The 
Irish  had  the  man,  what  mattered  the  principles?  The 
new  suffrages  simply  became  the  figures  upon  the  cheques 
handed  over  to  the  Chief  by  each  constituency,  with  the 
request  that  he  would  fill  in  the  name  of  the  payee.  On 
one  or  two  occasions  a  constituency  did  protest  against 
the  payee,  but  all  that  was  required  to  settle  the  matter 
was  a  personal  visit  from  the  Chief.  Generally  speaking, 
the  electorate  were  quite  docile,  and  instances  were  not 
wanting  of  men  discovering  that  they  had  found  favour 
with  electors  to  whom  their  faces  and  even  their  names 
were  previously  unknown. 

No    doubt,    the   one-man    system     had     a     tactical 


THE  ONE-MAN    SYSTEM.  7Q 

value,  of  which  the  English  themselves  were  ever  ready 
to  make  use.  "  If  all  Ireland  cannot  rule  this  man,  then 
let  this  man  rule  all  Ireland,"  said  Henry  VII.  of  the 
Earl  of  Kildare ;  and  the  echo  of  these  words  was 
heard  when  the  Kilmainham  Treaty  was  negotiated  with 
the  last  man  who  wore  the  mantle  of  the  chief.  But 
whatever  may  be  said  for  the  one-man  system  as  a 
means  of  political  organisation,  it  lacked  every  element 
of  political  education.  It  left  the  people  weaker,  if 
possible,  and  less  capable  than  it  found  them ;  and 
assuredly  it  was  no  fit  training  for  Home  Rule.  While 
Parnell's  genius  was  in  the  ascendant,  all  was  well — 
outwardly.  When  a  tragic  and  painful  disclosure  brought 
about  a  crisis  in  his  fate,  it  will  hardly  be  contended 
by  the  most  devoted  admirer  of  the  Irish  people  that 
the  situation  was  met  with  even  moderate  ability  and 
foresight.  But  the  logic  of  events  began  to  take  effect. 
The  decade  of  dissension  which  followed  the  fall  of 
Parnell  will,  perhaps,  some  day  be  recognised  as  a  most 
fruitful  epoch  in  modern  Irish  history.  The  re-action  from 
the  one-man  system  set  in  as  soon  as  the  one  man  had 
passed  away.  The  independence  which  Parnell's  former 
lieutenants  began  to  assert  when  the  laurels  faded  upon 
the  brow  of  the  uncrowned  King  communicated  itself  to 
some  extent  to  the  rank  and  file.  The  mere  weighing  of 
the  merits  of  several  possible  successors  led  to  some 
wholesome  questioning  as  to  the  merits  of  the  policies, 
such  as  they  were,  which  they  respectively  represented. 
The  critical  spirit  which  was  now  called  forth,  did  not, 


80  INFLUENCE  OF  POLITICS  UPON  THE  IRISH  MIND. 

at  first,  go  very  far ;  but  it  was  at  least  constructive  and 
marked  a  distinct  advance  towards  real  political  thought. 
I  believe  the  day  will  come,  and  come  soon,  when 
Nationalist  leaders  themselves  will  recognise  that  while 
bemoaning  faction  and  dissension  and  preaching  the 
cause  of  '  unity '  they  often  mistook  the  wheat  for  the 
tares.  They  will,  I  feel  sure,  come  to  realise  that  the 
passing  of  the  dictatorship,  which  to  outward  appear- 
ances left  the  people  as  "  sheep  without  a  shepherd,  when 
the  snow  shuts  out  the  sky,"  in  fact  turned  the  thoughts 
of  Ireland  in  some  measure  away  from  England  into  her 
own  bosom,  and  gave  birth  there  to  the  idea  of  a  national 
life  to  which  the  Irish  people  of  all  classes,  creeds,  and 
politics  could  contribute  of  their  best. 

I  sometimes  wonder  whether  the  leaders  of  the  Na- 
tionalist party  really  understand  the  full  effect  of  their 
tactics  upon  the  political  character  of  the  Irish  people, 
and  whether  their  vision  is  not  as  much  obscured  by  a  too 
near,  as  is  the  vision  of  the  Unionist  leaders  by  a  too 
distant,  view  of  the  people's  life.  Everyone  who 
seeks  to  provide  practical  opportunities  for  Irish  intellect 
to  express  itself  worthily  in  active  life — and  this,  I  take 
it,  is  part  of  what  the  Nationalist  leaders  wish  to  achieve 
— meets  with  the  same  difficulty.  The  lack  of  initiative 
and  shrinking  from  responsibility,  the  moral  timidity 
in  glaring  contrast  with  the  physical  courage — which  has 
its  worst  manifestation  in  the  intense  dread  of  public 
opinion,  especially  when  the  unknown  terrors  of  edito- 
rial power  lurk  behind  an  unfavourable  mention  '  on  the 


WEAKNESS    OF  MORAL  FIBRE.  8l 

paper,'  are,  no  doubt,  qualities  inherited  from  a  primitive 
social  state  in  which  the  individual  was  nothing  and  the 
community  everything.  These  defects  were  intensified 
in  past  generations  by  British  statecraft,  which  seemed 
unable  to  appreciate  or  use  the  higher  instincts  of  the 
race ;  they  remain  to-day  a  prominent  factor  in  the 
great  human  problem  known  as  the  Irish  Question — 
a  factor  to  which,  in  my  belief,  may  be  attributed  the 
greatest  of  its  difficulties. 

It  is  quite  clear  that  education  should  have  been  the 
remedy  for  the  defects  of  character  upon  which  I  am 
forced  to  dwell  so  much  ;  and  I  cannot  absolve  any  body 
of  Irishmen,  possessed  of  actual  or  potential  influence, 
of  failure  to  recognise  this  truth.  But  here  I  am  dealing 
only  with  the  political  leaders,  and  trying  to  bring  home 
to  them  the  responsibility  which  their  power  imposes 
upon  them,  not  only  for  the  political  development  but 
also  for  the  industrial  progress  of  their  followers.  They 
ought  to  have  known  that  the  weakness  of  character 
which  renders  the  task  of  political  leadership  in  Ireland 
comparatively  easy  is  in  reality  the  quicksand  of  Irish 
life,  and  that  neither  self-government  nor  any  other 
institution  can  be  enduringly  built  upon  it. 

The  leaders  of  the  Nationalist  party  are,  of  course, 
entitled  to  hold  that,  in  existing  political  conditions, 
any  non-political  movement  towards  national  advance- 
ment, which  in  its  nature  cannot  be  linked,  as  the  land 
question  was  linked,  to  the  Home  Rule  movement  con- 
stitutes an  unwarrantable  sacrifice  of  ends  to  means.  And 

G 


82  INFLUENCE  OF  POLITICS  UPON  THE  IRISH   MIND. 

so  holding,  they  are  further  entitled  to  subject  any  pro 
posal  to  elevate  popular  thought,  or  to  direct  popular 
activities,  to  a  strict  censorship  as  to  its  remote  as  well  as 
to  its  immediate  effect  upon  the  electorate.  I  know,  too, 
that  it  is  held  by  some  thinking  Nationalists  who  take 
no  active  part  in  politics  that  the  politicians  are  justified 
on  tactical  grounds  in  this  exclusive  pursuit  of  their 
political  aims,  and  in  the  methods  by  which  they  pursue 
them.  They  consider  the  present  system  of  govern- 
ment too  radically  wrong  to  mend,  and  they  can 
undoubtedly  point  to  agrarian  legislation  as  evidence  of 
the  effectiveness  of  the  means  they  employ  to  gain  their 
end. 

This  view  of  things  has  sunk  very  deep  into  the  Irish 
mind.  The  policy  of  '  giving  trouble  '  to  the  Government 
is  looked  upon  as  the  one  road  to  reform  and  is  believed 
in  so  fervently  that,  except  for  religion,  which  sometimes 
conflicts  with  it,  there  is  scarcely  any  capacity  left  for 
belief  in  anything  else.  I  am  far  from  denying  that  the 
past  offers  much  justification  for  the  belief  that  nothing 
can  be  gained  by  Ireland  from  England  except  through 
violent  agitation.  Until  recently,  I  admit,  Ireland's 
opportunity  had  to  wait  for  England's  difficulty.  But,  as 
practised  in  the  present  day,  I  believe  this  doctrine 
to  be  mischievous  and  false.  For  one  thing,  there 
is  a  new  England  to  deal  with.  The  England 
which,  certainly  not  in  deference  to  violent  agitation, 
established  the  Congested  Districts  Board,  gave  Local 
Government  to  Ireland,  and  accepted  the  recom- 


AGITATION  AS  A  POLICY.  83 

mendations  of  the  Recess  Committee  for  far-reaching 
administrative  changes,  as  well  as  those  of  the  Land 
Conference  which  involved  great  financial  concessions, 
is  not  the  England  of  fifty  years  ago,  still  less  the 
England  of  the  eighteenth  century.  Moreover,  in 
riveting  the  mind  of  the  country  on  what  is  to 
be  obtained  from  England,  this  doctrine  of  'giving 
trouble,'  the  whole  gospel  of  the  agitator,  has  blinded 
the  Irish  people  to  the  many  things  which  Ireland 
can  do  for  herself.  Whatever  may  be  said  of 
what  is  called  '  agitation '  in  Ireland  as  an  engine  for 
extorting  legislation  from  the  Imperial  Parliament,  it  is 
unquestionably  bad  for  the  much  greater  end  of  building 
up  Irish  character  and  developing  Irish  industry  and 
commerce.  '  Agitation,'  as  Thomas  Davis  said,  '  is  one 
means  of  redress,  but  it  leads  to  much  disorganisation, 
great  unhappiness,  wounds  upon  the  soul  of  a  country 
which  sometimes  are  worse  than  the  thinning  of  a  people 
by  war.'*  If  Irish  politicians  had  at  all  realised  this 
truth,  it  is  difficult  to  believe  that  the  popular  movement 
of  the  last  quarter  of  a  century  would  not  have  been 
conducted  in  a  manner  far  less  injurious  to  the  soul  of 

*  Prose  Writings  of  Thomas  Davis,  p.  284.  'The  writers  of 
The  Nation,'  wrote  Davis  in  another  place,  '  have  never  concealed  the 
defects  or  flattered  the  good  qualities  of  their  countrymen.  They  have 
told  them  in  good  faith  that  they  wanted  many  an  attribute  of  a  free 
people,  and  that  the  true  way  to  command  happiness  and  liberty  was  by 
learning  the  arts  and  practising  the  culture  that  fitted  men  for  their 
enjoyment'  (p.  176).  The  thing  that  especially  distinguished  Davis 
among  Nationalist  politicians  was  the  essentially  constructive 
mind  which  he  brought  to  bear  on  Irish  questions,  as  illustrated 
in  the  passage  I  have  italicised.  It  is,  I  am  afraid,  the  part  of  his 
legacy  of  thought  which  has  been  least  regarded  by  his  admirers. 


84  INFLUENCE  OF   POLITICS  UPON  THE  IRISH   MINt>. 

Ireland  and  equally  or  more  effective  for  legislative 
reform  as  well  as  all  other  material  interests. 

Now,  modern  Nationalism  in  Ireland  is  open  to 
damaging  criticism  not  only  from  my  Unionist  point  of 
view,  which  was  also,  in  many  respects,  the  view  of  so 
strong  a  Nationalist  as  Thomas  Davis ;  it  is  also  open  to 
grave  objection  from  the  point  of  view  of  the  effective- 
ness of  the  tactics  employed  for  the  attainment  of  its 
end — the  winning  of  Home  Rule. 

Before  examining  the  effect  of  these  tactics  I  may 
point  out  that  this  conception  of  Nationalist  policy,  even 
if  justifiable  from  a  practical  point  of  view,  does  not 
relieve  the  leaders  from  the  obligation  of  giving  some 
assurance  that  they  are  ready  with  a  consistent  scheme  of 
re-construction,  and  are  prepared  to  build  when  the 
ground  has  been  cleared.  In  this  connection  I  might 
make  a  good  deal  of  Unionist  capital,  and  some  points  in 
support  of  my  condemnation  of  the  political  absorption 
of  the  Irish  mind,  out  of  the  total  failure  of  the 
Nationalist  party  to  solve  certain  all-important  constitu- 
tional and  financial  problems  which  months  of  Parlia- 
mentary debate  in  1893  tended  rather  to  obscure  than  to 
elucidate.  I  am,  however,  willing  for  argument's  sake  to 
postpone  all  such  questions,  vital  as  they  are,  to  the 
time  when  they  can  be  practically  dealt  with.  I  am 
ready  to  assume  that  the  wit  of  man  can  devise  a  settle- 
ment of  many  points  which  seemed  insoluble  in  Mr. 
Gladstone's  day.  But  even  granting  all  this,  I  think  it 
can  easily  be  shown  that  the  means  which  the  political 


NATIONALIST  TACTICS.  85 

thought  available  on  the  Nationalist  side  has  evolved  for 
the  attainment  of  their  end,  and  which  ex  hypothesi  are 
only  to  be  justified  on  tactical  grounds,  are  the  least 
likely  to  succeed ;  and  that,  consequently,  they  should 
be  abandoned  in  favour  of  a  constructive  policy  which, 
to  say  the  least,  would  not  be  less  effective  towards 
advancing  the  Home  Rule  cause,  if  that  cause  be  sound, 
and  which  would  at  the  same  time  help  the  advancement 
of  Ireland  in  other  than  political  directions. 

Tactics  form  but  a  part  of  generalship,  and  half  the 
success  of  generalship  lies  in  making  a  correct  estimate 
of  the  opposing  forces.  This  is  as  true  of  political  as  it 
is  of  military  operations.  Now,  of  what  do  the  forces 
opposed  to  Home  Rule  consist  ?  The  Unionists,  it  may 
be  admitted,  are  numerically  but  a  small  minority  of  the 
population  of  Ireland — probably  not  more  than  one- 
fourth.  But  what  do  they  represent?  First,  there  are 
the  landed  gentry.  Let  us  again  make  a  concession  for 
the  sake  of  argument  and  accept  the  view  that  this  class 
so  wantonly  kept  itself  aloof  from  the  life  of  the  majority 
of  the  people  that  the  Nationalists  could  not  be  expected 
to  count  them  among  the  elements  of  a  Home  Rule 
Ireland.  I  note,  in  passing,  with  extreme  gratification 
that  at  the  recent  Land  Conference  it  was  declared  by 
the  tenants'  representatives  that  it  was  desirable,  in  the 
interests  of  Ireland,  that  the  present  owners  of  land 
should  not  be  expatriated,  and  that  inducements  should 
be  afforded  to  selling  owners  to  continue  to  reside  in  the 
country. 


86  INFLUENCE  OF  POLITICS  UPON  THE  IRISH   MIND. 

But  I  may  ignore  this  as  I  wish  here  to  recall  attention 
to  that  other  element,  which  was,  as  I  have  already 
said,   the   real   force   which   turned   the   British   demo- 
cracy   against    Home    Rule — I    mean    the    commercial 
and  industrial   community  in  Belfast  and   other  hives 
of   industry   in  the  north-east    corner   of   the    country, 
and  in  scattered  localities  elsewhere.      I  have  already 
admitted   that   the   political   importance   of   the   indus- 
trial  element   was   not   appreciated   in    Irish    Unionist 
circles.       No    less    remarkable    is    the    way    in    which 
it  has  been  ignored  by  the  Nationalists.      The  question 
which    the   Nationalists    had   to    answer   in    1886   and 
1893,  and  which  they  have  to  answer  to-day,  is  this: — 
In    the    Ireland    of   their    conception    is    the    Unionist 
part   of    Ulster  to  be  coerced    or    persuaded    to    come 
under  the  new  regime  ?    To  those  who  adopt  the  former 
alternative  my  reply  is  simply  that,  if  England  is  to  do 
the  coercion,  the  idea  is  politically  absurd.     If  we  were 
left  to  fight  it  out   among  ourselves,  it  is  physically 
absurd.     The  task  of  the  Empire  in  South  Africa  was 
light  compared  with  that  which  the  Nationalists  would 
have  on  hands.     I  am  aware  that,  at  the  time  when  we 
were  all  talking  at  concert  pitch  on  the  Irish  Question, 
a  good  deal  was  said  about  dying  in  the  last  ditch  by 
men  who  at  the  threat  of  any  real  trouble  would  be 
found  more  discreetly  perched  upon  the  first  fence.    But 
those  who  know  the  temper  and  fighting  qualities  of  the 
working-men  opponents  of  Home  Rule  in  the  North  are 
under  no  illusion  as  to  the  account  they  would  give  of 


DISLOYALTY  AND   BOYCOTTING.  87 

themselves  if  called  upon  to  defend  the  cause  of  Protest- 
antism, liberty,  and  imperial  unity  as  they  understand  it. 
Let  us,  however,  dismiss  this  alternative  and  give 
Nationalists  credit  for  the  desire  to  persuade  the 
industrial  North  to  come  in  by  showing  it  that  it  will 
be  to  its  advantage  to  join  cordially  in  the  building 
up  of  a  united  Ireland  under  a  separate  legislature. 

The  difficulties  in  the  way  of  producing  this  conviction 
are  very  obvious.  The  North  has  prospered  under  the 
Act  of  Union — why  should  it  be  ready  to  enter  upon  a 
new  { variety  of  untried  being '  ?  What  that  state  of 
being  will  be  like,  it  naturally  gauges  from  the  forces 
which  are  working  for  Home  Rule  at  present.  Looking 
at  these  simply  from  the  industrial  standpoint  and  leaving 
out  of  account  all  the  powerful  elements  of  religious  and 
race  prejudice,  the  man  of  the  North  sees  two  salient  facts 
which  have  dominated  all  the  political  activity  of  the 
Nationalist  campaign.  One  is  a  voluble  and  aggressive 
disloyalty,  not  merely  to  '  England '  and  to  the  present 
system  of  government,  but  to  the  Crown  which  repre- 
sents the  unity  of  the  three  kingdoms,  and  the  other  is 
the  introduction  of  politics  into  business  in  the  very 
virulent  and  destructive  form  known  as  boycotting. 

Now,  hostility  to  the  Crown,  if  it  means  anything, 
means  a  struggle  for  separation  as  soon  as  Home  Rule 
has  given  to  the  Irish  people  the  power  to  organise  and 
arm.  And  (still  keeping  to  the  sternly  practical  point 
of  view)  that  would,  for  the  time  being  at  least,  spell 
absolute  ruin  to  the  industrial  North.  The  practice  of 


88  INFLUENCE  OF  POLITICS  UPON  THE  IRISH   MIND. 

boycotting,  again,  is  the  very  antithesis  of  industry — it 
creates  an  atmosphere  in  which  industry  and  enterprise 
simply  cannot  live.  The  North  has  seen  this  practice 
condoned  as  a  desperate  remedy  for  a  desperate  ill,  but 
it  has  seen  it  continued  long  after  the  ill  had  passed 
away,  used  as  a  weapon  by  one  Nationalist  section 
against  another,  and  revived  when  anything  like  a  really 
oppressive  or  arbitrary  eviction  had  become  impossible. 
There  seems  to  have  been  in  Nationalist  circles,  since 
the  time  of  O'Connell,  but  little  appreciation  of  the 
deadly  character  of  this  social  curse  ;  and  the  prospect  of 
a  Government  which  would  tolerate  it  naturally  fills  the 
mind  of  the  Northern  commercial  man  with  alarm  and 
aversion. 

Again,  the  democratisation  of  local  government  which 
gave  the  Nationalist  leaders  a  unique  opportunity  of 
showing  the  value,  has  but  served  to  demonstrate  the 
ineffectiveness,  of  their  political  tactics.  North  of 
Ireland  opinion  was  deeply  interested  in  this  reform,  and 
appreciated  its  far-reaching  importance.  Elsewhere,  I 
think  it  will  be  safe  to  say,  people  generally  were  indif- 
ferent to  it  until  it  came,  and  the  leaders  seemed  to  see 
in  it  only  a  weapon  to  be  used  for  political  purposes.  To 
the  great  vista  of  useful  and  patriotic  work  opened  out 
by  the  Act  of  1898,  to  the  impression  that  a  proper  use 
of  that  Act  might  make  on  Northern  opinion,  they  were 
blind.  It  is  true  that  the  Councils  when  left  to  them- 
selves did  admirably,  and  fully  justified  the  trust  reposed 
in  them.  But  at  the  inauguration  of  local  government 


AFTER    HOME    RULE.  89 

it  was  naturally  not  the  work  of  the  Councils  but  the 
attitude  of  the  party  leaders  which  appeared  to  stamp 
the  reception  of  the  Act  by  the  Irish  people. 

It  is  true,  of  course,  that  many  thoughtful  men  among 
the  Nationalist  party  repudiate  the  idea  that  the  methods 
of  to-day  would  be  continued  in  a  self-governed  Ireland. 
I  fail  to  see  any  reason  why  they  should  not.  Under  any 
system  of  limited  Home  Rule  questions  would  arise 
which  would  afford  much  the  same  sort  of  justification 
for  the  employment  of  such  methods,  and  they  could 
hardly  be  worse  for  the  welfare  of  the  country  then  than 
they  are  now.  There  is  abundant  need  and  abundant 
work  in  the  present  day  for  thoughtful  and  far-seeing  men 
in  a  party  constitutionally  so  strong  as  that  of  the  Irish 
Nationalists.  If  those  among  them  who  possess,  or  at 
any  rate  can  make  effective  use  of  qualities  of  con- 
structive statesmanship  are  as  few  as  the  history  of  recent 
years  would  lead  us  to  suppose,  what  assurance  can 
Ulster  Unionists  feel  that  such  men  would  spring  up 
spontaneously  in  an  Ireland  under  Home  Rule?  I 
admit,  indeed,  that  a  considerable  measure  of  such 
assurance  might  be  derived  from  the  attitude  of  the 
leaders  of  the  party  at  and  since  the  Land  Conference. 
But  this  adoption  of  statesmanlike  methods  which  cannot 
be  too  widely  understood  or  too  warmly  commended  is 
a  matter  of  very  recent  history ;  and  though  we  may 
hope  that  the  success  attending  it  will  help  materially 
in  the  political  education  of  the  Irish  people,  that  will 
not,  by  itself,  undo  the  effect  of  a  quarter  of  a  century  of 


gO  INFLUENCE  OF   POLITICS  UPON  THE   IRISH   MIND. 

political  agitation  governed  by  ideas  the  very  reverse  of 
those  which  are  now  happily  beginning  to  find  favour. 

I  have  thought  it  necessary  to  examine  at  some  length 
the  defence  on  the  ground  of  tactics  which  is  often  made 
for  Nationalist  politics,  because  it  is  the  only  defence 
ever  made  by  those  apologists  who  admit  the  disturbing 
influence  upon  our  economic  and  social  life  of  Nationalist 
methods.  A  broader  and  saner  view  of  political  tactics 
than  prevailed  ten  years  ago  is  now  possible,  for  circum- 
stances are  becoming  friendly  and  helpful  to  the  develop- 
ment of  political  thought.  Though  the  United  Irish 
League  apparently  restored  '  unity '  to  the  ranks  of  the 
Nationalists,  the  country  is,  I  believe,  getting  restless 
under  the  political  bondage,  and  is  seething  with  a 
wholesome  discontent.  In  this  very  matter  of  political 
education,  the  stir  of  corporate  life,  the  sense  of  corporate 
responsibility  which  in  every  parish  of  Ireland  are  now 
being  fostered  by  the  reformed  system  of  local  govern- 
ment, must  make  their  influence  felt  in  wider  spheres. 
Even  now  I  believe  that  the  field  is  ready  for  the  work 
of  those  who  would  bid  the  old  leader-following  habit, 
the  product  partly  of  the  dead  clan  system,  partly  of 
dying  national  animosities,  depart  as  a  thing  that  has 
had  its  day,  and  who  would  endeavour  to  train  up  a 
race  of  free,  self-reliant,  and  independent  citizens  in  a 
free  state. 

In  this  work  the  very  men  whose  mistaken  con- 
ception of  a  united  Ireland  I  have  criticised  will, 
I  doubt  not,  take  a  leading  part.  In  many  respects, 


THE    POLITICAL    WILDERNESS.  QI 

and  these  not  the  least  important,  no  one  could 
desire  a  better  instrument  for  the  achievement  of 
great  reforms  than  the  Irish  party.  They  are 
far  beyond  any  similar  group  of  English  members 
in  rhetorical  skill  and  quickness  of  intelligence 
and  decision,  qualities  which  no  doubt  belong  to  the 
mechanism  rather  than  the  soul  of  politics,  but  which  the 
practical  worker  in  public  life  will  not  despise.  But  even 
when  tried  by  a  higher  standard  the  Irish  members  need 
not  fear  the  judgment  of  history.  They  have  often,  in  my 
opinion,  misconceived  the  true  interests  of  their  country, 
but  they  have  been  faithful  to  those  interests  as  they 
understood  them,  and  have  proved  themselves  notably 
superior  to  sordid  personal  aims.  These  gifts  and 
virtues  are  not  common,  but  still  rarer  is  it  to  see  such 
gifts  and  virtues  cursed  with  the  doom  of  futility.  The 
influence  of  the  Irish  political  leaders  has  neither 
advanced  the  nation's  march  through  the  wilderness 
nor  taught  the  people  how  they  are  to  dispense  with 
manna  from  above  when  they  reach  the  Promised  Land. 
With  all  their  brilliancy,  they  have  thrown  but  little 
helpful  light  on  any  Irish  problem.  In  this  want  of  poli- 
tical and  economic  foresight  Irish  Nationalist  politicians, 
with  some  exceptions  whom  it  would  be  invidious  to 
name,  have  fallen  lamentably  short  of  what  might  be  ex- 
pected of  Irish  intellect.  For  the  eight  years  during  which 
I  represented  an  Irish  constituency  I  always  felt  that  an 
Irish  night  in  the  House  of  Commons  was  one  of  the 
strangest  and  most  pathetic  of  spectacles.  There  were 


0,2  INFLUENCE  OF  POLITICS  UPON  THE   IRISH  MIND. 

the  veterans  of  the  Irish  party  hardened  by  a  hun- 
dred fights,  ranging  from  Venezuela  to  the  Soudan  in 
search  of  battlefields,  making  allies  of  every  kind  of 
foreign  potentate,  from  President  Cleveland  to  the 
Mahdi,  from  Mr.  Kruger  to  the  Akhoom  of  Swat, 
but  looking  with  suspicion  on  every  symptom  of  an  inde- 
pendent national  movement  in  Ireland ;  masters  of  the 
language  of  hate  and  scorn,  yet  mocked  by  inevitable 
and  eternal  failure  ;  winners  of  victories  that  turn  to  dust 
and  ashes  ;  devoted  to  their  country,  yet,  from  ignorance 
of  the  real  source  of  its  malady,  ever  widening  the  gaping 
wound  through  which  its  life-blood  flows.  While  I  recall 
these  scenes,  there  rises  before  my  mind  the  picture 
vividly  drawn  by  Miss  Lawless  of  their  prototypes, 
the  '  Wild  Geese,'  who  carried  their  swords  into  foreign 
service  after  the  final  defeat  of  the  Stuarts : — 

War-battered  dogs  are  we. 
Fighters  in  every  clime, 
Fillers  of  trench  and  of  grave. 
Mockers,  bemocked  by  Time; 
War-dogs,  hungry  and  grey, 
Gnawing  a  naked  bone, 
Fighting  in  every  clime 
Every  cause  but  our  own.* 

Irishmen  have  been  long  in  realising  that  the  days  of 
the  '  Wild  Geese '  are  over,  and  that  there  are  battles  for 
Ireland  to  be  fought  and  won  in  Ireland — battles  in 
which  England  is  not  the  enemy  she  was  in  the  days  of 

*  With  the  Wild  Geese.  Poems  by  the  Hon.  Emily  Lawless.  I 
have  never  read  a  better  portrayal  of  the  historic  Irish  sentiment  than 
s  set  forth  in  this  little  volume.  By  the  way,  there  is  a  preface  by 
Mr.  Stopford  Brooke,  which  is  singularly  interesting  and  informing. 


AT  THE  CROSS  ROADS.  93 

Fontenoy,  but  a  friend  and  helper.  But  there  will  be 
little  gain  in  replacing  the  traditional  conception  of 
England  as  the  inexorable  foe  by  the  more  modern  con- 
ception, which  threatened  to  become  traditional  in  its 
turn,  of  England  as  the  source  of  all  prosperity  and  her 
favour  as  the  condition  of  all  progress  in  Ireland.  In 
the  recent  Land  Conference  I  recognise  something  more 
valuable  even  than  the  financial  and  legislative  results 
which  flowed  from  it,  for  it  showed  that  the  conception 
of  reliance  upon  Irishmen  in  Ireland,  not  under  some 
future  and  problematical  conditions,  but  here  and  now, 
for  the  solution  of  Irish  questions,  is  gaining  ground 
among  us.  If  this  conception  once  takes  firm  hold,  as 
I  think  it  is  beginning  to  do,  of  the  Nationalist  party  in 
Ireland,  much  of  the  criticism  of  this  chapter  will  lose 
its  meaning.  The  mere  substitution  of  a  positive  Irish 
policy  for  a  negative  anti-English  policy  will  elevate 
the  whole  range  of  Nationalist  political  activity  in  and 
out  of  Ireland.  And  I  am  certain  that  if  the  ultimate 
goal  of  Nationalist  politics  be  desirable,  and  continue  to 
be  desired,  it  will  not  be  rendered  more  difficult,  but  on 
the  contrary  very  much  easier  of  attainment  if  those  who 
seek  it  take  possession  of  the  great  field  of  work  which, 
without  waiting  for  any  concessions  from  Westminster, 
is  offered  by  the  Ireland  of  to-day. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

THE  INFLUENCE  OF  RELIGION  UPON  SECULAR  LIFE 
IN  IRELAND. 

In  the  preceding  chapter  I  attempted  to  estimate 
the  influence  of  our  political  leaders  as  a  potential 
and  as  an  actual  force.  I  come  now  to  the  second 
great  influence  upon  the  thought  and  action  of  the 
Irish  people,  the  influence  of  religion,  especially  the 
power  exercised  by  the  priests  and  by  the  unrivalled 
organisation  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church.  I  do 
not  share  the  pessimism  which  sees  in  this  potent 
influence  nothing  but  the  shackles  of  mediaeval  ism 
restraining  its  adherents  from  falling  into  line  with 
the  progress  of  the  age.  I  shall,  indeed,  have  to 
admit  much  of  what  is  charged  against  the  clerical 
leaders  of  popular  thought  in  Ireland,  but  I  shall 
be  able  to  show,  I  hope,  that  these  leaders  are  largely 
the  product  of  a  situation  which  they  themselves  did  not 
create,  and  that  not  only  are  they  as  susceptible  as  are 
the  political  leaders  to  the  influences  of  progressive 
movements,  but  that  they  can  be  more  readily  induced  to 
take  part  in  their  promotion.  In  no  other  country  in  the 
world,  probably,  is  religion  so  dominant  an  element  in 
the  daily  life  of  the  people  as  in  Ireland,  and  certainly 


TOLERATION.  95 

nowhere  else  has  the  minister  of  religion  so  wide  and 
undisputed  an  authority.  It  is  obvious,  therefore,  that, 
however  foreign  such  a  theme  may  -prima  facie  appear 
to  the  scope  and  aim  of  the  present  volume,  I  have  no 
choice  but  to  analyse  frankly  and  as  fully  as  my  personal 
experience  justifies,  what  I  conceive  to  be  the  true 
nature,  the  salutary  limits,  and  the  actual  scope  of 
clerical  influence  in  this  country. 

But  before  I  can  discuss  what  I  may  call  the  religious 
situation,  there  is  one  fundamental  question — a  question 
which  will  appear  somewhat  strange  to  anyone  not  in 
touch  with  Irish  life — which  I  must,  with  a  view  to  a 
general  agreement  on  essentials,  submit  to  some  of  my 
co-religipnists.  In  all  seriousness  I  would  ask,  whether 
in  their  opinion  the  Roman  Catholic  Church  in  Ireland 
is  to  be  tolerated.  If  the  answer  be  in  the  negative,  I 
can  only  reply  that  any  efforts  to  stamp  out  the  Roman 
Catholic  faith  would  fail  as  they  did  in  the  past ;  and  the 
practical  minds  among  those  I  am  now  addressing  must 
admit  that  in  toleration  alone  is  to  be  found  the  solution 
of  that  part  of  the  Irish  difficulty  which  is  due  to 
sectarian  animosities. 

This  brings  us  face  to  face  with  the  question,  What 
is  religious  toleration — I  do  not  mean  as  a  pious  senti- 
ment which  we  are  all  conscious  of  ourselves  possessing 
in  a  truer  sense  than  that  in  which  it  is  possessed  by 
others,  but  rather  toleration  as  an  essential  of  the 
liberty  which  we  Protestants  enjoy  under  the  British 
Constitution,  and  boast  that  all  other  creeds  equally 


g6  INFLUENCE  OF   RELIGION    IN    IRELAND. 

enjoy  ?  Perhaps  I  had  better  state  simply  how  I  answer 
this  question  in  my  own  mind  Toleration  by  the  Irish 
minority,  in  regard  to  the  religious  faith  and  ecclesiastical 
system  of  the  Irish  majority,  implies  that  we  admit  the 
right  of  Rome  to  say  what  Roman  Catholics  shall 
believe  and  what  outward  forms  they  shall  observe, 
and  that  they  shall  not  suffer  before  the  State 
for  these  beliefs  and  observances.  I  do  not  think 
exception  can  be  taken  to  the  statement  that  toleration 
in  this  narrow  sense  cannot  be  refused  consistently  with 
the  fundamental  principles  of  British  government. 

Now,  however,  comes  a  less  obvious,  but,  as  I  think, 
no  less  essential  condition  of  toleration  in  the  sense 
above  indicated.  The  Roman  Catholic  Hierarchy  claim 
the  right  to  exercise  such  supervision  and  control  over 
the  education  of  their  flock  as  will  enable  them  to  safe- 
guard faith  and  morals  as  preached  and  practised  by 
their  Church.  I  concede  this  second  claim  as  a  neces- 
sary corollary  of  the  first.  Having  lived  most  of  my  life 
among  Roman  Catholics — two  branches  of  my  own 
family  belonging  to  that  religion — I  am  aware  that 
this  control  is  an  essential  part  of  the  whole  fabric 
of  Roman  Catholicism.  Whether  the  basis  of  autho- 
rity upon  which  that  system  is  founded  be  in  its  origin 
divine  or  human  is  beside  the  point.  If  we  profess  to 
tolerate  the  faith  and  religious  system  of  the  majority 
of  our  countrymen  we  must  at  least  concede  the  condi- 
tions essential  to  the  maintenance  of  both  the  one  and 
the  other,  unless  our  tolerance  is  to  be  a  sham. 


THE   WIDER  TOLERANCE.  97 

So  far  all  liberal-minded  Protestants,  who  know  what 
Roman  Catholicism  is,  will  be  with  me  ;  and  for  the  main 
purposes  of  the  argument  contained  in  this  chapter  it 
is  not  necessary  to  interpret  toleration  in  any  wider  sense 
than  that  which  I  have  indicated.  Many  Protestants, 
among  whom  I  am  one,  do,  it  is  true,  make  a  further 
concession  to  the  claim  of  our  Roman  Catholic  fellow- 
countrymea  We  would  give  them  in  Ireland  facilities 
for  higher  education  which  we  would  not  give  them  in 
England,  and  we  would  advocate  liberal  endowment  by 
the  State  to  this  end.  But  this  attitude  is,  I  admit,  based 
upon  something  more  than  tolerance,  and  those  who 
would  withhold  this  concession  need  not  be  accused  of 
bigotry  or  intolerance  for  so  doing.  They  may  be,  and 
often  are,  actuated  by  the  most  liberal  motives,  by  a 
perfectly  legitimate  conception  of  educational  principles, 
or  by  other  considerations  which  are  neither  of  a  narrow 
nor  sectarian  character. 

I  need  hardly  say  that  in  criticising  religious  systems 
and  their  ministers  I  have  not  the  faintest  intention  of 
entering  on  the  discussion  of  doctrinal  issues.  I  am,  of 
course,  here  concerned  with  only  those  aspects  of  the 
religious  situation  which  bear  directly  on  secular  life. 
I  am  endeavouring,  it  must  be  remembered,  to  arrive  at  a 
comprehensive  and  accurate  appreciation  of  the  chief 
influences  which  mould  the  character,  guide  the  thought, 
and,  therefore,  direct  the  action  of  the  Irish  people  as 
citizens  of  this  world  and  of  their  own  country.  From 

this  standpoint  let  us  try  to  make  a  dispassionate  survey 

H 


98  INFLUENCE   OF   RELIGION'    IN    IRELAND. 

of  Protestantism  and  Roman  Catholicism  in  Ireland,  and 
see  wherein  their  votaries  fulfil,  or  fail  to  fulfil,  their 
mission  in  advancing  our  common  civilisation.  Let  us 
examine,  in  a  word,  not  merely  the  direct  influence  which 
the  creed  of  each  of  the  two  sections  of  Irishmen 
produces  on  the  industrial  character  of  its  adherents,  but 
also  its  indirect  effects  upon  the  mutual  relations  and 
regard  for  each  other  of  Protestants  and  Roman 
Catholics. 

Protestantism  has  its  stronghold  in  the  great  industrial 
centres  of  the  North  and  among  the  Presbyterian  far- 
mers of  five  or  six  Ulster  counties.  These  communities, 
it  is  significant  to  note,  have  developed  the  essentially 
strenuous  qualities  which,  no  doubt,  they  brought  from 
England  and  Scotland.  In  city  life  their  thrift,  industry, 
and  enterprise,  unsurpassed  in  the  United  Kingdom, 
have  built  up  a  world-wide  commerce.  In  rural  life  they 
have  drawn  the  largest  yield  from  relatively  infertile  soil 
Such,  in  brief,  is  the  achievement  of  Ulster  Protestantism 
in  the  realm  of  industry.  It  is  a  story  of  which,  when  a 
united  Ireland  becomes  more  than  a  dream,  all  Irishmen 
will  be  proud. 

But  there  is,  unhappily,  another  side  to  the 
picture.  This  industrial  life,  otherwise  so  worthily 
cultivated,  is  disturbed  by  manifestations  of  religious 
bigotry  which  sadly  tarnish  the  glory  of  the  really  heroic 
deeds  they  are  intended  to  commemorate.  It  is  impos- 
sible for  any  close  observer  of  these  deplorable  exhibi- 
tions to  avoid  the  conclusion  that  the  embers  of  the  old 


SECTARIANISM   AND    PROGRESS.  99 

fires  are  too  often  fanned  by  men  who  are  actuated  by 
motives,  which,  when  not  other  than  religious,  are  cer- 
tainly based  upon  an  unworthy  conception  of  religion.  I 
am  quite  aware  that  it  is  only  a  small  and  decreasing 
minority  of  my  co-religionists  who  are  open  to  the  charge 
of  intolerance,  and  that  the  geographical  limits  of  the 
July  orgy  are  now  strictly  circumscribed.  But  this 
bigotry  is  so  notorious,  as  for  instance  in  the  exclusion 
of  Roman  Catholics  from  many  responsible  positions, 
that  it  unquestionably  reacts  most  unfavourably  upon 
the  general  relations  between  the  two  creeds  throughout 
the  whole  of  Ireland.  The  existence  of  such  a  spirit 
of  suspicion  and  hatred,  from  whatever  motive  it  eman- 
ates, is  bound  to  retard  our  progress  as  a  people  towards 
the  development  of  a  healthy  and  balanced  national  life. 
Many  causes  have  recently  contributed  to  the  un- 
happy continuance  of  sectarian  animosities  in  Ireland. 
The  Ritualistic  movement  and  the  struggle  over  the 
Education  Bill  in  England,  the  renewed  controversy  on 
the  University  Question  in  Ireland,  instances  of  bigotry 
towards  Protestants  displayed  by  County,  District,  and 
Urban  Councils  in  the  three  southern  provinces  of 
Ireland,  the  formation  of  the  Catholic  Association,  the 
question  of  the  form  of  the  King's  oath,  and,  more 
remotely,  the  protest  against  clericalism  in  such  Roman 
Catholic  countries  as  France  and  Austria,  have  one  and 
all  helped  to  keep  alive  the  flame  of  anti- Roman  feeling 
among  Irish  Protestants.* 

*  The  reproach  which  is  brought  upon  Irish  Christianity  mainly  by 


IOO  INFLUENCE   OF    RELIGION    IN    IRELAND. 

There  are,  happily,  other  influences  now  at  work  in 
a  contrary  direction.  Among  the  industrial  leaders  a 
better  spirit  prevails.  A  well-known  Ulster  manufac- 
turer told  me  recently  that  only  a  few  years  ago,  when 
an  applicant  for  employment  appeared  at  certain 
Northern  factories,  which  my  friend  named,  the  first 
question  always  put  was,  'Are  you  a  Protestant  or 
Roman  Catholic?'  Now,  he  said,  it  is  not  what  a  man 
believes,  but  what  he  can  do,  which  is  considered  when 
engaging  workers.  And  outside  the  cities  there  are 
most  gratifying  signs  of  better  relations  between  the 
two  creeds.  We  are  on  the  eve  of  the  creation  of  a 
peasant  proprietary,  involving  the  rehabilitation  of  rural 
life,  and  one  essential  condition  of  the  successful  in- 
auguration of  the  new  agrarian  order  is  the  elimination 
of  anything  approaching  to  sectarian  bitterness  in  com- 
munities which  will  require  every  advantage  deriv- 
able from  joint  deliberation  and  common  effort  to  enable 
them  to  hold  their  own  against  foreign  competition.  I 
recall  a  trivial  but  significant  incident  in  the  course  of  my 
Irish  work  which  left  a  deep  impression  on  my  mind. 
After  attending  a  meeting  of  farmers  in  a  very  backward 
district  in  the  extreme  west  of  Mayo,  I  arrived  one  winter's 

the  extravagances  of  a  section  of  my  co-religionists,  to  which  I  have  been 
obliged  to  refer,  came  home  to  me  not  long  ago  in  a  very  forcible  way.  I 
happened  to  remark  to  a  friend  that  it  was  a  disgrace  to  Christianity 
that  Mussulman  soldiery  were  employed  at  the  Holy  Sepulchre  to 
keep  the  peace  between  the  Latin  and  Greek  Christians.  He  reminded 
me  that  the  prosperous  and  progressive  municipality  of  Belfast,  with  a 
population  eminently  industrious,  and  predominantly  Protestant,  has  to 
be  policed  by  an  Imperial  force  in  order  to  restrain  two  sections  of 
Irish  Christians  from  assaulting  each  other  in  the  name  of  religion. 


A    LESSON    IN   CHARITY.  101 

evening  at  the  Roman  Catholic  priest's  house.  Before 
the  meeting  I  had  been  promised  a  cup  of  tea,  which, 
after  a  long,  cold  drive,  was  more  than  acceptable. 
When  I  presented  myself  at  the  priest's  house,  what  was 
my  astonishment  at  finding  the  Protestant  clergyman 
presiding  over  a  steaming  urn  and  a  plate  of  home-made 
cakes,  having  been  requested  to  do  the  honours  by  his 
fellow-minister,  who  had  been  called  away  to  a  sick  bed. 
A  cycle  of  homilies  on  the  virtue  of  tolerance  could  add 
nothing  to  the  simple  lesson  which  these  two  clergymen 
gave  to  the  adherents  of  both  their  creeds.  I  felt  as  I 
went  on  my  way  that  night  that  I  had  had  a  glimpse  into 
the  kind  of  future  for  Ireland  towards  which  my  fellow- 
workers  are  striving. 

It  is,  however,  with  the  religion  of  the  majority  of  the 
Irish  people  and  with  its  influence  upon  the  industrial 
character  of  its  adherents  that  I  am  chiefly  concerned. 
Roman  Catholicism  strikes  an  outsider  as  being  in  some  of 
its  tendencies  non-economic,  if  not  actually  anti-economic 
These  tendencies  have,  of  course,  much  fuller  play  when 
they  act  on  a  people  whose  education  has  (through  no 
fault  of  their  own)  been  retarded  or  stunted.  The  fact 
is  not  in  dispute,  but  the  difficulty  arises  when  we  come 
to  apportion  the  blame  between  ignorance  on  the  part  of 
the  people  and  a  somewhat  one-sided  religious  zeal  on 
the  part  of  large  numbers  of  their  clergy.  I  do  not  seek 
to  do  so  with  any  precision  here.  I  am  simply  adverting 
to  what  has  appeared  to  me,  in  the  course  of  my 
experience  in  Ireland,  to  be  a  defect  in  the  industrial 


IO2  INFLUENCE   OF  RELIGION    IN    IRELAND. 

character  of  Roman  Catholics  which,  however  caused, 
seems  to  me  to  have  been  intensified  by  their  religion. 
The  reliance  of  that  religion  on  authority,  its  repression 
of  individuality,  and  its  complete  shifting  of  what  I  may 
call  the  human  centre  of  gravity  to  a  future  existence — 
to  mention  no  other  characteristics — appear  to  me  calcu- 
lated, unless  supplemented  by  other  influences,  to  check 
the  growth  of  the  qualities  of  initiative  and  self-reliance, 
especially  amongst  a  people  whose  lack  of  education 
unfits  them  for  resisting  the  influence  of  what  may 
present  itself  to  such  minds  as  a  kind  of  fatalism  with 
resignation  as  its  paramount  virtue. 

It  is  true  that  one  cannot  expect  of  any  church  or 
religion,  as  a  condition  of  its  acceptance,  that  it  will 
furnish  an  economic  theory ;  and  it  is  also  true  that 
Roman  Catholicism  has,  at  different  periods  of  history, 
advantageously  affected  economic  conditions,  even  if  it 
did  not  act  from  distinctively  economic  motives — for 
example,  by  its  direct  influence  in  the  suppression  of 
slavery*  and  its  creation  of  the  mediaeval  craft  guilds. 
It  may,  too,  be  admitted  that  during  the  Middle  Ages, 
when  Roman  Catholicism  was  freer  than  now  to  manifest 
its  influence  in  many  directions,  owing  to  its  practically 
unchallenged  supremacy,  it  favoured,  when  it  did  not 
originate,  many  forms  of  sound  economic  activity,  and 
was,  to  say  the  least,  abreast  of  the  time  in  its  concep- 
tion of  the  working  of  economic  causes.  But  from  the 

*  '  Pro  salute  animae  meae  '  was,  I  am  reminded,  the  consideration 
usually  expressed  in  the  old  charters  of  manumission. 


CATHOLICISM   AND    MODERN    ECONOMICS. 

time  when  the  Reformation,  by  its  demand  for  what 
we  Protestants  conceive  to  be  a  simpler  Christianity, 
drove  Roman  Catholicism  back,  if  I  may  use  the  expres- 
sion, on  its  first  line  of  defence,  and  constrained  it  to 
look  to  its  distinctively  spiritual  heritage,  down  to  the 
present  day,  it  has  seemed  to  stand  strangely  aloof  from 
any  contact  with  industrial  and  economic  issues.  When 
we  consider  that  in  this  period  Adam  Smith  lived 
and  died,  the  industrial  revolution  was  effected,  and 
the  world-market  opened,  it  is  not  surprising  that  we 
do  not  find  Roman  Catholic  countries  in  the  van  of 
economic  progress,  or  even  the  Roman  Catholic  element 
in  Protestant  countries,  as  a  rule,  abreast  of  their  fellow- 
countrvmen.  It  wonlH 


ERRATUM. 
On  p.  102,  line  5,  for  "human"  read  "moral." 


and  clergymen.  Even  in  these  countries,  however,  much 
remains  to  be  done.  The  revolution  in  the  industrial 
order,  and  its  consequences,  such  as  the  concentration  of 
immense  populations  within  restricted  areas,  have  brought 
with  them  social  and  moral  evils  that  must  be  met  with 
new  weapons.  In  the  interests  of  religion  itself,  prin- 
ciples first  expounded  to  a  Syrian  community  with  the 
most  elementary  physical  needs  and  the  simplest  of 
avocations,  have  to  be  taught  in  their  application  to  the 
conditions  of  the  most  complex  social  organisation  and 


IO2  INFLUENCE   OF  RELIGION    IN   IRELAND. 

character  of  Roman  Catholics  which,  however  caused, 
seems  to  me  to  have  been  intensified  by  their  religion. 
The  reliance  of  that  religion  on  authority,  its  repression 
of  individuality,  and  its  complete  shifting  of  what  I  may 
call  the  human  centre  of  gravity  to  a  future  existence — 
to  mention  no  other  characteristics — appear  to  me  calcu- 
lated, unless  supplemented  by  other  influences,  to  check 
the  growth  of  the  qualities  of  initiative  and  self-reliance, 
especially  amongst  a  people  whose  lack  of  education 
unfits  them  for  resisting  the  influence  of  what  may 
present  itself  to  such  minds  as  a  kind  of  fatalism  with 
resignation  as  its  paramount  virtue. 

It  is  true  that  one  cannot  expect  of  any  church  or 


example,  rjy  ITS  direct  mimcacc  m  tuc  oujppiv^oiw^  ~* 
slavery*  and  its  creation  of  the  mediaeval  craft  guilds. 
It  may,  too,  be  admitted  that  during  the  Middle  Ages, 
when  Roman  Catholicism  was  freer  than  now  to  manifest 
its  influence  in  many  directions,  owing  to  its  practically 
unchallenged  supremacy,  it  favoured,  when  it  did  not 
originate,  many  forms  of  sound  economic  activity,  and 
was,  to  say  the  least,  abreast  of  the  time  in  its  concep- 
tion of  the  working  of  economic  causes.  But  from  the 

»    '  Pro  salute  animae  meae  '  was,  I  am  reminded,   the  consideration 
usually  expressed  in  the  old  charters  of  manumission. 


CATHOLICISM   AND    MODERN    ECONOMICS. 

time  when  the  Reformation,  by  its  demand  for  what 
we  Protestants  conceive  to  be  a  simpler  Christianity, 
drove  Roman  Catholicism  back,  if  I  may  use  the  expres- 
sion, on  its  first  line  of  defence,  and  constrained  it  to 
look  to  its  distinctively  spiritual  heritage,  down  to  the 
present  day,  it  has  seemed  to  stand  strangely  aloof  from 
any  contact  with  industrial  and  economic  issues.  When 
we  consider  that  in  this  period  Adam  Smith  lived 
and  died,  the  industrial  revolution  was  effected,  and 
the  world-market  opened,  it  is  not  surprising  that  we 
do  not  find  Roman  Catholic  countries  in  the  van  of 
economic  progress,  or  even  the  Roman  Catholic  element 
in  Protestant  countries,  as  a  rule,  abreast  of  their  fellow- 
countrymen.  It  would,  however,  be  an  error  to  ignore 
some  notable  exceptions  to  this  generalisation.  In 
Belgium,  in  France,  in  parts  of  Germany  and  Austria,  and 
in  the  north  of  Italy  economic  thought  is  making  head- 
way amongst  Roman  Catholics,  and  the  solution  of  social 
problems  is  being  advanced  by  Roman  Catholic  laymen 
and  clergymen.  Even  in  these  countries,  however,  much 
remains  to  be  done.  The  revolution  in  the  industrial 
order,  and  its  consequences,  such  as  the  concentration  of 
immense  populations  within  restricted  areas,  have  brought 
with  them  social  and  moral  evils  that  must  be  met  with 
new  weapons.  In  the  interests  of  religion  itself,  prin- 
ciples first  expounded  to  a  Syrian  community  with  the 
most  elementary  physical  needs  and  the  simplest  of 
avocations,  have  to  be  taught  in  their  application  to  the 
conditions  of  the  most  complex  social  organisation  and 


104  INFLUENCE   OF    RELIGION   IN   IRELAND. 

economic  life.  Taking  people  as  we  find  them,  it  may 
be  said  with  truth  that  their  lives  must  be  wholesome 
before  they  can  be  holy,  and  while  a  voluntary  asceticism 
may  have  its  justification,  it  behoves  a  Church  to  see 
that  its  members,  while  fully  acknowledging  the  claims 
of  another  life,  should  develop  the  qualities  which  make 
for  well-being  in  this  life.  In  fact,  I  believe  that  the 
influence  of  Christianity  upon  social  progress  will  be 
best  maintained  by  co-ordinating  these  spiritual  and 
economic  ideals  in  a  philosophy  of  life  broader  and 
truer  than  any  to  which  the  nations  have  yet  attained. 

What  I  have  just  been  saying  with  regard  to  Roman 
Catholicism  generally,  in  relation  to  economic  doctrines 
and  industrial  progress,  applies,  of  course,  with  a  hundred 
fold  pertinence  to  the  case  of  Ireland.  Between  the 
enactment  of  the  first  Penal  Laws  and  the  date  of 
Roman  Catholic  Emancipation,  Irish  Roman  Catholics 
were,  to  put  it  mildly,  afforded  scant  opportunity,  in  their 
ov/n  country,  of  developing  economic  virtues  or  achieving 
industrial  success.  Ruthlessly  deprived  of  education, 
are  they  to  be  blamed  if  they  did  not  use  the  newly 
acquired  facilities  to  the  best  advantage?  With  their 
religion  looked  on  as  the  badge  of  legal  and  social  in- 
feriority, was  it  any  wonder  that  priests  and  people  alike, 
while  clinging  with  unexampled  fidelity  to  their  creed,  re- 
mained altogether  cut  off  from  the  current  of  material 
prosperity?  Excluded,  as  they  were,  not  merely  from 
social  and  political  privileges,  but  from  the  most  ordinary 
civil  rights,  denied  altogether  the  right  of  ownership  of 


EFFECTS  OF  THE  PENAL  LAWS.  IO5 

real  property,  and  restricted  in  the  possession  of  person- 
alty, is  it  any  wonder  that  they  are  not  to-day  in  the  van  of 
industrial  and  commercial  progress  ?  Nay,  more,  was  it  to 
have  been  expected  that  the  character  of  a  people  so  per- 
secuted and  ostracised  should  have  come  out  of  the 
ordeal  of  centuries  with  its  adaptability  and  elasticity 
unimpaired  ?  That  would  have  been  impossible.  Those 
who  are  intimate  with  the  Roman  Catholic  people 
of  Ireland,  and  at  the  same  time  familiar  with  their 
history,  will  recognise  in  their  character  and  mental  out- 
look many  an  inheritance  of  that  epoch  of  serfdom. 
I  speak,  of  course,  of  the  mass,  for  I  am  not  unmindful  of 
many  exceptions  to  this  generalisation. 

But  I  must  now  pass  on  to  a  more  definite  con- 
sideration of  the  present  action  and  attitude  of  the  Irish 
Roman  Catholic  clergy  towards  the  economic,  educa- 
tional, and  other  issues  discussed  in  this  book.  The 
reasons  which  render  such  a  consideration  necessary 
are  obvious.  Even  if  we  include  Ulster,  three  quarters 
of  the  Irish  people  are  Roman  Catholics,  while,  exclud- 
ing the  Northern  province,  quite  nine-tenths  of  the 
population  belong  to  that  religion.  Again,  the  three 
thousand  clergymen  of  that  denomination  exercise  ail 
influence  over  their  flocks  not  merely  in  regard  to 
religious  matters,  but  in  almost  every  phase  of  their 
lives  and  conduct,  which  is,  in  its  extent  and  character, 
quite  unique,  even,  I  should  say,  amongst  Roman 
Catholic  communities.  To  a  Protestant,  this  authority 
seems  to  be  carried  very  far  beyond  what  the  legitimate 


IO6  INFLUENCE  OF  RELIGION  IN  IRELAND. 

influence  of  any  clergy  over  the  lay  members  of  their 
congregation  should  be.  We  are,  however,  dealing  with 
a  national  life  explicable  only  by  reference  to  a  very  ex- 
ceptional and  gloomy  history  of  religious  persecution. 
What  I  may  call  the  secular  shortcomings  of  the  Roman 
Catholics  in  Ireland  cannot  be  fairly  judged  except  as 
the  results  of  a  series  of  enactments  by  which  they  were 
successively  denied  almost  all  means  of  succeeding  as 
citizens  of  this  world. 

From  such  study  as  I  have  been  able  to  give  to  the 
history  of  their  Church,  I  have  come  to  the  conclusion 
that  the  immense  power  of  the  Irish  Roman  Catholic 
clergy  has  been  singularly  little  abused.  I  think  it 
must  be  admitted  that  they  have  not  exhibited  in  any 
marked  degree  bigotry  towards  Protestants.  They  have 
not  put  obstacles  in  the  way  of  the  Roman  Catholic 
majority  choosing  Protestants  for  political  leaders,  and 
it  is  significant  that  refugees,  such  as  the  Palatines, 
from  Catholic  persecutions  in  Europe,  found  at  different 
times  a  home  amongst  the  Roman  Catholic  people  of 
Ireland.  My  own  experience,  too,  if  I  may  again  refer 
to  that,  distinctly  proves  that  it  is  no  disadvantage  to  a 
man  to  be  a  Protestant  in  Irish  political  life,  and  that 
where  opposition  is  shown  to  him  by  Roman  Catholics 
it  is  almost  invariably  on  political,  social,  or  agrarian, 
but  not  on  religious  grounds. 

A  charge  of  another  kind  has  of  late  been  often 
brought  against  the  Roman  Catholic  clergy,  which  has  a 
direct  bearing  upon  the  economic  aspect  of  this  question. 


CHURCH-BUILDING.  107 

Although,  as  I  read  Irish  history,  the  Roman  Catholic 
priesthood  have,  in  the  main,  used  their  authority 
with  personal  disinterestedness,  if  not  always  with  pru- 
dence or  discretion,  their  undoubted  zeal  for  religion  has, 
on  occasion,  assumed  forms  which  enlightened  Roman 
Catholics,  including  high  dignitaries  of  that  Church,  think 
unjustifiable  on  economic  grounds,  and  discourage  even 
from  a  religious  standpoint.  Excessive  and  extrava- 
gant church-building  in  the  heart  and  at  the  expense  of 
poor  communities  is  a  recent  and  notorious  example  of 
this  misdirected  zeal.  It  has  been,  I  believe,  too  often 
forgotten  that  the  best  monument  of  any  clergyman's 
influence  and  earnestness  must  always  be  found  in  the 
moral  character  and  the  spiritual  fibre  of  his  flock,  and 
not  in  the  marbles  and  mosaics  of  a  gaudy  edifice.  And 
without  doubt  a  good  many  motives  which  have  but  a 
remote  connection  with  religion  are,  unfortunately,  at 
work  in  the  church-building  movement.  It  may,  however, 
to  some  extent,  be  regarded  as  an  extreme  re-action  from 
the  penal  times,  when  the  hunted  soggarth  had  to 
celebrate  the  Mass  in  cabins  and  caves  on  the  mountain 
side — a  re-action  the  converse  of  which  was  witnessed  in 
Protestant  England  when  Puritanism  rose  up  against 
Anglicanism  in  the  seventeenth  century.  This  expen- 
diture, however,  has  been  incurred ;  and,  no  one,  I  take 
it,  would  advocate  the  demolition  of  existing  religious 
edifices  on  the  ground  that  their  erection  had  been 
unduly  costly!  The  moral  is  for  the  present  and  the 
future,  and  applies  not  merely  to  economy  in  new 


IO8  INFLUENCE   OF   RELIGION    IN    IRELAND. 

buildings,    but    also    in    the    decoration    of    existing 
churches.* 

But  it  is  not  alone  extravagant  church  building  which 
in  a  country  so  backward  as  Ireland,  shocks  the  economic 
sense.  The  multiplication — in  inverse  ratio  to  a  de 
clining  population— of  costly  and  elaborate  monastic  and 
conventual  institutions,  involving  what  in  the  aggregate 
must  be  an  enormous  annual  expenditure  for  mainte- 
nance, is  difficult  to  reconcile  with  the  known  con- 
ditions of  the  country.  Most  of  these  institutions,  it 
is  true,  carry  on  educational  work,  often,  as  in  the  case 
of  the  Christian  Brothers  and  some  colleges  and  con- 
vents, of  an  excellent  kind.  Many  of  them  render  great 
services  to  the  poor,  and  especially  to  the  sick  poor. 
But,  none  the  less,  it  seems  to  me,  their  growth  in 
number  and  size  is  anomalous.  I  cannot  believe  that  so 
large  an  addition  to  the  '  unproductive  '  classes  is  econo- 
mically sound,  and  I  have  no  doubt  at  all  that  the  com- 
petition with  lay  teachers  of  celibates  '  living  in  commu- 
nity '  is  excessive  and  educationally  injurious.  Strongly 
as  I  hold  the  importance  of  religion  in  education,  I  per- 

*  One  of  the  unfortunate  effects  of  this  passion  for  building  costly 
churches  is  the  importation  of  quantities  of  foreign  art-work  in  the 
shape  of  woodcarvings,  stained  glass,  mosaics,  and  metal  work.  To 
good  foreign  art,  indeed,  one  could  not,  within  certain  limits,  object. 
It  might  prove  a  valuable  example  and  stimulus.  But  the  articles  which 
have  actually  been  imported,  in  the  impulse  to  get  everything  finished 
as  soon  as  possible,  generally  consist  of  the  stock  pieces  produced  in  a 
spirit  of  mere  commercialism  in  the  workshops  of  Continental  firms 
which  make  it  th«ir  business  to  cater  for  a  public  who  do  not  know  the 
difference  between  good  art  and  bad.  Much  of  the  decoration  of 
ecclesiastical  buildings,  whether  Roman  Catholic  or  Protestant,  might 
fittingly  be  postponed  until  religion  in  Ireland  has  got  into  closer  rela- 
tion with  the  native  artistic  sense  and  industrial  spirit  now  beginning 
to  se«k  creative  expression. 


RELIGIOUS    ORDERS    IN    EDUCATION. 

sonally  do  not  think  that  teachers  who  have  renounced 
the  world  and  withdrawn  from  contact  with  its  stress 
and  strain  are  the  best  moulders  of  the  characters  of 
youths  who  will  have  to  come  into  direct  conflict  with 
the  trials  and  temptations  of  life.  But  here  again  we 
must  accept  the  situation  and  work  with  the  instruments 
ready  to  hand.  The  practical  and  statesmanlike  action 
for  all  those  concerned  is  to  endeavour  to  render  these 
institutions  as  efficient  educational  agencies  as  may  be 
possible.  They  owe  their  existence  largely  to  the  gaps 
in  the  educational  system  of  this  country  which  religious 
and  political  strife  have  produced  and  maintained,  and 
they  deserve  the  utmost  credit  for  endeavouring  to 
supply  missing  steps  in  our  educational  ladder.*  If  they 
now  fully  respond  to  the  spirit  of  the  new  movements 
and  meet  the  demand  for  technical  education  by  the 
employment  of  the  most  approved  methods  and  equip- 
ment, and  by  the  thorough  training  on  sound  lines  of 

*  The  following  extract  from  a  statement  of  the  Most  Rev.  Dr. 
O'Dea,  the  newly  elected  Bishop  of  Clonfert,  is  pertiaent : — '  There  is 
another  cause  also — i.e.  in  addition  to  the  absence  of  university  educa- 
tion for  Roman  Catholic  laymen — which  has  hindered  the  employment 
of  the  laity  in  the  past.  Till  very  recently,  the  secondary  Catholic 
schools  received  no  assistance  whatever  from  the  State,  and  their 
endowment  from  private  sources  was  utterly  inadequate  to  supply  suit- 
able remuneration  for  lay  teachers.  It  is  evident  that  a  celibate  clergy 
can  live  on  a  lower  wage  than  the  laity,  and  they  are  now  charged  with 
having  monopolized  the  schools,  because  they  chose  to  work  tor  & 
minimum  allowance  rather  than  suffer  the  country  to  remain  without 
any  secondary  education  whatever.  Two  causes,  then,  operated  in  the 
past,  and  in  a  large  measure  still  operate,  to  exclude  the  laity  from  the 
secondary  schools,— first,  these  schools  were  so  poverty-stricken  that 
they  could  not  afford  to  pay  lay  teachers  at  such  a  rate  as  would  attract 
them  to  the  teaching  profession,  and,  next,  the  Catholic  laity  as  a  body 
were  uneducated,  and,  therefore,  unfit  to  teach  in  the  schools.' — May- 
nooth  and  the  University  Question,  p.  109  (footnote). 


HO  INFLUENCE   OF   RELIGION    IN    IRELAND. 

their  staffs,  it  is  impossible  that  their  influence  on  the 
young  generation  should  not  be  as  salutary  as  it  will  be 
wide-reaching. 

But,  after  all,  these  criticisms  are,  for  the  purposes  of 
my  argument,  of  minor  relevance  and  importance.  The 
real  matter  in  which  the  direct  and  personal  responsi- 
bility of  the  Roman  Catholic  clergy  seems  to  me  to  be 
involved,  is  the  character  and  morale  of  the  people  of 
this  country.  No  reader  of  this  book  will  accuse  me  of 
attaching  too  little  weight  to  the  influence  of  historical 
causes  on  the  present  state,  social,  economic  and  political, 
of  Ireland,  but  even  when  I  have  given  full  consideration 
to  all  such  influences  I  still  think  that,  with  their  unques- 
tioned authority  in  religion,  and  their  almost  equally 
undisputed  influence  in  education,  the  Roman  Catholic 
clergy  cannot  be  exonerated  from  some  responsibility  in 
regard  to  Irish  character  as  we  find  it  to-day.  Are  they, 
I  would  ask,  satisfied  with  that  character?  I  cannot 
think  so.  The  impartial  observer  will,  I  fear,  find  amongst 
a  majority  of  our  people  a  striking  absence  of  self- 
reliance  and  moral  courage ;  an  entire  lack  of  serious 
thought  on  public  questions ;  a  listlessness  and  apathy 
in  regard  to  economic  improvement  which  amount  to  a 
form  of  fatalism ;  and,  in  backward  districts,  a  survival 
of  superstition,  which  saps  all  strength  of  will  and 
purpose — and  all  this,  too,  amongst  a  people  singularly 
gifted  by  nature  with  good  qualities  of  mind  and  heart. 

Nor  can  the  Roman  Catholic  clergy  altogether  console 
themselves  with  the  thought  that  religious  faith,  even 


THE  CLERGY  AND  IRISH  CHARACTER.         Ill 

when  free  from  superstition,  is  strong  in  the  breasts  of 
the  people.  So  long,  no  doubt,  as  Irish  Roman  Catho- 
lics remain  at  home,  in  a  country  of  sharply  denned 
religious  classes,  and  with  a  social  environment  and  a 
public  opinion  so  preponderatingly  stamped  with  their 
creed,  open  defections  from  Roman  Catholicism  are 
rare.  But  we  have  only  to  look  at  the  extent  of  the 
'  leakage '  from  Roman  Catholicism  amongst  the  Irish 
emigrants  in  the  United  States  and  in  Great  Britain,  to 
realise  how  largely  emotional  and  formal  must  be  the 
religion  of  those  who  lapse  so  quickly  in  a  non-Catholic 
atmosphere.* 

It  is  not,  of  course,  to  the  causes  of  the  defections 
from  a  creed  to  which  I  do  not  subscribe  that  my 
criticism  is  directed.  I  refer  to  the  matter  only  in  order 
to  emphasise  the  large  share  of  responsibility  which 
belongs  to  the  Roman  Catholic  clergy  for  what  I  strongly 
believe  to  be  the  chief  part  in  the  work  of  national 
regeneration,  the  part  compared  with  which  all  legis- 
lative, administrative,  educational  or  industrial  achieve- 
ments are  of  minor  importance.  Holding,  as  I  do,  that 
the  building  of  character  is  the  condition  precedent  to 
material,  social  and  intellectual  advancement,  indeed  to 

*  See,  inter  alia,  an  article  "  Ireland  and  America,"  by  Rev.  Mr 
Shinnors,  O.M.,  in  the  7mA  Ecclesiastical  Record,  February,  1902.  '  Has 
the  Church,'  asks  Father  Shinnors,  'increased  her  membership  in  the 
ratio  that  the  population  of  the  United  States  has  increased  ?  No. 
There  are  many  converts,  but  there  are  many  more  apostates.  Large 
numbers  lapse  into  indifferentism  and  irreligion.  There  should  be 
in  America  about  20,000,000  Catholics ;  there  are  scarcely  10,000,000. 
There  are  reasons  to  fear  that  the  great  majority  of  the  apostates  are  of 
Irish  extraction,  and  not  a  few  of  them  of  Irish  birth.' 


112  INFLUENCE    OF   RELIGION    IN    IRELAND. 

all  national  progress,  I  may,  perhaps,  as  a  lay  citizen, 
more  properly  criticise,  from  this  point  of  view,  what  I 
conceive  to  be  the  great  defect  in  the  methods  of  clerical 
influence.  For  this  purpose  no  better  illustration  could 
be  afforded  than  a  brief  analysis  of  the  results  of  the 
efforts  made  by  the  Roman  Catholic  clergy  to  inculcate 
temperance. 

Among  temperance  advocates — the  most  earnest  of  all 
reformers — the  Roman  Catholic  clergy  have  an  honour- 
able record.  An  Irish  priest  was  the  greatest,  and,  for  a 
brief  spell,  the  most  successful  temperance  apostle  of  the 
last  century,  and  statistics,  it  is  only  fair  to  say,  show  that 
we  Irish  drink  rather  less  than  people  in  other  parts  of 
the  United  Kingdom.  But  the  real  question  is  whether 
we  more  often  drink  to  intoxication,  and  police  statistics 
as  well  as  common  experience  seem  to  disclose  that 
we  do.  Many  a  temperate  man  drinks  more  in  his 
life  than  many  a  village  drunkard.  Again,  the  test  of 
the  average  consumption  of  man,  woman  and  child  is 
somewhat  misleading,  especially  in  Ireland  where,  owing 
to  the  excessive  emigration  of  adults,  there  is  a  dispropor- 
tionately large  number  of  very  young  and  old.  Moreover, 
we  Irish  drink  more  in  proportion  to  our  means  than  the 
English,  Scotch,  and  Welsh,  whose  consumption  is  abso- 
lutely larger.  Anyone  who  attempts  to  deal  practically 
with  the  problems  of  industrial  development  in  Ireland 
realises  what  a  terribly  depressing  influence  the  drink 
evil  exercises  upon  the  industrial  capacity  of  the  people. 
'  Ireland  sober  is  Ireland  free,'  is  nearer  the  truth  than 


CAUSES    OF    INTEMPERANCE    IN    IRELAND.  113 

much  that  is  thought  and  most  of  what  is  said  about 
liberty  in  this  country. 

Now,  the  drink  habit  in  Ireland  differs  from  that  of 
the  other  parts  of  the  United  Kingdom.  The  Irishman 
is,  in  my  belief,  physiologically  less  subject  to  the  craving 
for  alcohol  than  the  Englishman,  a  fact  which  is  partially 
attributable,  I  should  say,  to  the  less  animal  dietary  to 
which  he  is  accustomed.  By  far  the  greater  proportion  of 
the  drinking  which  retards  our  progress  is  of  a  festive 
character.  It  takes  place  at  fairs  and  markets,  sometimes, 
even  yet,  at  '  wakes,'  those  ghastly  parodies  on  the 
blessed  consolation  of  religion  in  bereavement.  It  is 
intensified  by  the  almost  universal  sale  of  liquor  in  the 
country  shops  '  for  consumption  on  the  premises,'  an  evil 
the  demoralising  effects  of  which  are  an  hundredfold 
greater  than  those  of  the  '  grocer's  licences '  which  tem- 
perance reformers  so  strenuously  denounce.  It  is  an 
evil  in  defence  of  which  nothing  can  be  said,  but  it 
has  somehow  escaped  the  effective  censure  of  the 
Church. 

The  indiscriminate  granting  of  licences  in  Ireland, 
which  has  resulted  in  the  provision  of  liquor  shops  in  a 
proportion  to  the  population  larger  than  is  found  in  any 
other  country,  is  in  itself  due  mainly  to  the  moral 
cowardice  of  magistrates,  who  do  not  care  to  incur  local 
unpopularity  by  refusing  licences  for  which  there  is  no 
pretence  of  any  need  beyond  that  of  the  applicant  and 
his  relatives.  Not  long  ago  the  magistrates  of  Ireland 
met  in  Dublin  in  order  to  inaugurate  common  action  in 


114  INFLUENCE   OF   RELIGION    IN    IRELAND. 

dealing  with  this  scandal.  Appropriate  resolutions  were 
passed,  and  much  good  has  already  resulted  from  the 
meeting,  but  had  the  unvarnished  truth  been  admissible, 
the  first  and  indeed  the  only  necessary  resolution  should 
have  run,  "  Resolved  that  in  future  we  be  collectively  as 
brave  as  we  have  been  individually  timid,  and  that  we 
take  heart  of  grace  and  carry  away  from  this  meeting 
sufficient  strength  to  do,  in  the  exercise  of  our  functions 
as  the  licensing  authority,  what  we  have  always  known 
to  be  our  plain  duty  to  our  country  and  our  God."  No 
such  resolution  was  proposed,  for  though  patriotism  is 
becoming  real  in  Ireland,  it  is  not  yet  very  robust 

I  do  not  think  it  unfair  to  insist  upon  the  large  respon- 
sibility of  the  clergy  for  the  state  of  public  opinion  in 
this  matter,  to  which  the  few  facts  I  have  cited  bear 
testimony.  But  I  attribute  their  failure  to  deal  with  a 
moral  evil  of  which  they  are  fully  cognisant  to  the  fact 
that  they  do  not  recognise  the  chief  defect  in  the  char- 
acter of  the  people,  and  to  a  misunderstanding  of  the 
means  by  which  that  character  can  be  strengthened.  There 
are,  however,  exceptions  to  this  general  statement.  It 
is  of  happy  augury  for  the  future  of  Ireland  that  many  of 
the  clergy  are  now  leading  a  temperance  movement 
which  shows  a  real  knowledge  of  the  causa  causans 
of  Irish  intemperance.  The  Anti-Treating  League,  as 
it  is  called,  administers  a  novel  pledge  which  must  have 
been  conceived  in  a  very  understanding  mind.  Those 
enlisted  undertake  neither  to  treat  nor  to  be  treated. 
They  may  drink,  so  far  as  the  pledge  is  concerned,  as 


MORAL    DISCIPLINE.  1 15 

much  as  they  like ;  but  they  must  drink  at  their  own 
expense  ;  and  others  must  not  drink  at  their  expense.  The 
good  nature  and  sociability  of  Irishmen,  too  often  the 
mere  result  of  inability  to  say  '  no,'  need  not  be  sacrificed. 
But  even  if  they  were,  the  loss  of  these  social  graces 
would  be  far  more  than  compensated  by  a  self-respect 
and  seriousness  of  life  out  of  which  something  perma- 
nent might  be  built.  Still,  even  this  League  makes  no 
direct  appeal  to  character,  and  so  acts  rather  as  a  cure 
for  than  as  a  preventive  of  our  moral  weakness. 

The  methods  by  which  clerical  influence  is  wielded  in 
the  inculcation  of  chastity  may  be  criticised  from  exactly 
the  same  standpoint  as  that  from  which  I  have  found  it 
necessary  to  deal  with  the  question  of  temperance. 
Here  the  success  of  the  Irish  priesthood  is,  considering 
the  conditions  of  peasant  life,  and  the  fire  of  the  Celtic 
temperament,  absolutely  unique.  No  one  can  deny  that 
almost  the  entire  credit  of  this  moral  achievement  belongs 
to  the  Roman  Catholic  clergy.  It  may  be  said  that 
the  practice  of  a  virtue,  even  if  the  motive  be  of  an 
emotional  kind,  becomes  a  habit,  and  that  habit  pro- 
verbially develops  into  a  second  nature.  With  this  view 
of  moral  evolution  I  am  in  entire  accord  ;  but  I  would 
ask  whether  the  evolution  has  not  reached  a  stage  where 
a  gradual  relaxation  of  the  disciplinary  measures  by 
which  chastity  is  insured  might  be  safely  allowed  without 
any  danger  of  lowering  the  high  standard  of  continence 
which  is  general  in  Ireland  and  which  of  course  it  is  of 
supreme  importance  to  maintain. 


Il6  INFLUENCE    OF   RELIGION'    IN    IRELAND. 

There  are,  however,  many  parishes  where  in  this 
matter  the  strictest  discipline  is  rigorously  enforced 
Amusements,  not  necessarily  or  even  often  vicious,  are 
objected  to  as  being  fraught  with  dangers  which  would 
never  occur  to  any  but  the  rigidly  ascetic  or  the  puri- 
tanical mind.  In  many  parishes  the  Sunday  cyclist  will 
observe  the  strange  phenomenon  of  a  normally  light- 
hearted  peasantry  marshalled  in  male  and  female  groups 
along  the  road,  eyeing  one  another  in  dull  wonderment 
across  the  forbidden  space  through  the  long  summer  day. 
This  kind  of  discipline,  unless  when  really  necessary,  is 
open  to  the  objection  that  it  eliminates  from  the  educa- 
tion of  life,  especially  during  the  formative  years,  an 
essential  of  culture — the  mutual  understanding  of  the 
sexes.  The  evil  of  grafting  upon  secular  life  a  quasi- 
monasticism  which,  not  being  voluntary,  has  no  real 
effect  upon  the  character,  may  perhaps  involve  moral 
consequences  little  dreamed  of  by  the  spiritual  guardians 
of  the  people.  A  study  of  the  pathology  of  the  emotions 
might  throw  doubt  upon  the  safety  of  enforced  asceticism 
when  unaccompanied  by  the  training  which  the  Church 
wisely  prescribes  for  those  who  take  the  vow  of  celibacy. 
But  of  my  own  knowledge  I  can  speak  only  of  another 
aspect  of  the  effect  upon  our  national  life  of  the  restric- 
tions to  which  I  refer.  No  Irishmen  are  more  sincerely 
desirous  of  staying  the  tide  of  emigration  than  the  Roman 
Catholic  clergy,  and  while,  wisely  as  I  think,  they  do  not 
dream  of  a  wealthy  Ireland,  they  earnestly  work  for  the 
physical  and  material  as  well  as  the  spiritual  well-being 


THE  PRIEST  IN  POLITICS. 

of  their  flocks.  And  yet  no  man  can  get  into  the  con- 
fidence of  the  emigrating  classes  without  being  told  by 
them  that  the  exodus  is  largely  due  to  a  feeling  that  the 
clergy  are,  no  doubt  from  an  excellent  motive,  taking  joy 
— innocent  joy — from  the  social  side  of  the  home  life. 

To  go  more  fully  into  these  subjects  might  carry  me 
beyond  the  proper  limits  of  lay  criticism.  But,  clearly, 
large  questions  of  clerical  training  must  suggest  them- 
selves to  those  to  whom  their  discussion  properly  belongs 
— whether,  for  example,  there  is  not  in  the  instances 
which  I  have  cited  evidence  of  a  failure  to  understand 
that  mere  authority  in  the  regions  of  moral  conduct 
cannot  have  any  abiding  effect,  except  in  the  rarest 
combination  of  circumstances,  and  with  a  very  primitive 
people.  Do  not  many  of  these  clergy  ignore  the  vast 
difference  between  the  ephemeral  nature  of  moral  com- 
pulsion and  the  enduring  force  of  a  real  moral  training? 

I  have  dealt  with  the  exercise  of  clerical  influence  in 
these  matters  as  being,  at  any  rate  in  relation  to  the 
subject  matter  of  this  book,  far  more  important  than 
the  evil  commonly  described  as  "  The  Priest  in  Politics." 
That  evil  is,  in  my  opinion,  greatly  misrepresented.  Tht 
cases  of  priests  who  take  an  improper  part  in  politics 
are  cited  without  reference  to  the  vastly  greater  number 
who  take  no  part  at  all,  except  when  genuinely  assured 
that  a  definite  moral  issue  is  at  stake.  I  also  have  in 
my  mind  the  question  of  how  we  should  have  fared  if 
the  control  of  the  different  Irish  agitations  had  been 
confined  to  laymen,  and  if  the  clergy  had  not  consistently 


Il8  INFLUENCE   OF   RELIGION    IN    IRELAND. 

condemned  secret  associations.  But  whatever  may  be 
said  in  defence  of  the  priest  in  politics  in  the  past,  there 
are  the  strongest  grounds  for  deprecating  a  continuance 
of  their  political  activity  in  the  future.  As  I  gauge  the 
several  forces  now  operating  in  Ireland,  I  am  convinced 
that  if  an  anti-clerical  movement  similar  to  that  which 
other  Roman  Catholic  countries  have  witnessed,  were  to 
succeed  in  discrediting  the  priesthood  and  lowering  them 
in  public  estimation,  it  would  be  followed  by  a  moral , 
social,  and  political  degradation  which  would  blight,  or 
at  least  postpone,  our  hopes  of  a  national  regeneration. 
From  this  point  of  view  I  hold  that  those  clergymen  who 
are  predominantly  politicians  endanger  the  moral  in- 
fluence which  it  is  their  solemn  duty  to  uphold.  I  believe 
however,  that  the  over-active  part  hitherto  taken  in 
politics  by  the  priests  is  largely  the  outcome  of  the  way 
in  which  Roman  Catholics  were  treated  in  the  past,  and 
that  this  undesirable  feature  in  Irish  life  will  yield,  and 
is  already  yielding  to  the  removal  of  the  evils  to  which  it 
owed  its  origin  and  in  some  measure  its  justification.* 

One  has  only  to  turn  to  the  spirit  and  temper  of  such 
representative  Roman  Catholics  as  Archbishop  Healy  and 
Dr.  Kelly,  Bishop  of  Ross — to  their  words  and  to  their 
deeds — in  order  to  catch  the  inspiration  of  a  new  move- 
ment amongst  our  Roman  Catholic  fellow-countrymen  at 
once  religious  and  patriotic.  And  if  my  optimism  ever 
wavers,  I  have  but  to  think  of  the  noble  work  that  many 

"This  view  seems  to  be  taken  by  the  most  influential  spokesmen 
of  the  Roman  Catholic  Hierarchy.  See  Evidence,  Royal  Commission  on 
University  Education  in  Ireland,  vol.  iii.,  p.  238,  Questions  8702-6. 


THE    DUTY   OF   PROTESTANTISM. 

priests  are  to  my  own  knowledge  doing,  often  in  remote 
and  obscure  parishes,  in  the  teeth  of  innumerable 
obstacles.  I  call  to  mind  at  such  times,  as  pioneers  in  a 
great  awakening,  men  like  the  eminent  Jesuit,  Father 
Thomas  Finlay,  Father  Hegarty  of  Erris,  Father 
O'Donovan  of  Loughrea,  and  many  others — men  with 
whom  I  have  worked  and  taken  counsel,  and  who  repre- 
sent, I  believe,  an  ever  increasing  number  of  their 
fellow  priests.* 

My  position,  then,  towards  the  influence  of  the  Roman 
Catholic  clergy — and  this  influence  is  a  matter  of  vital 
importance  to  the  understanding  of  Irish  problems — 
may  now  be  clearly  defined.  While  recognising  to  the 
full  that  large  numbers  of  the  Irish  Roman  Catholic 
clergy  have  in  the  past  exercised  undue  influence  in 
purely  political  questions,  and,  in  many  other  matters, 
social,  educational,  and  economic,  have  not,  as  I  see 
things,  been  on  the  side  of  progress,  I  hold  that  their 
influence  is  now,  more  than  ever  before,  essential  for 
improving  the  condition  of  the  most  backward  section 
of  the  population.  Therefore  I  feel  it  to  be  both  the  duty 
and  the  strong  interest  of  my  Protestant  fellow-country- 

*  I  may  mention  that  of  the  co-operative  societies  organised  by 
the  Irish  Agricultural  Organisation  Society  there  are  no  fewer  than  331 
societies  of  which  the  local  priests  are  the  Chairmen,  while  to  my  own 
knowledge  during  the  summer  and  autumn  of  1902,  as  many  as  50,000 
persons  from  all  parts  of  Ireland  were  personally  conducted  over  the 
exhibit  of  the  Department  of  Agriculture  and  Technical  Instruction 
at  the  Cork  Exhibition  by  their  local  clergy.  The  educational  purpose 
of  these  visits  is  explained  in  Chap.  x.  Again,  in  a  great  number  of  cases 
the  village  libraries  which  have  been  recently  started  in  Ireland  with 
the  assistance  of  the  Department  (the  books  consisting  largely  of 
industrial,  economic,  and  technical  works  on  agriculture),  have  been 
organised  and  assisted  by  the  Roman  Catholic  clergy. 


I2O  INFLUENCE    OF   RELIGION    IN    IRELAND. 

men  to  think  much  less  of  the  religious  differences  which 
divide  them  from  Roman  Catholics,  and  much  more  of 
their  common  citizenship  and  their  common  cause.  I  also 
hold  with  equal  strength  and  sincerity  to  the  belief,  which 
I  have  already  expressed,  that  the  shortcomings  of  the 
Roman  Catholic  clergy  are  largely  to  be  accounted  for, 
not  by  any  innate  tendency  on  their  part  towards  obscu- 
rantism, but  by  the  sad  history  of  Ireland  in  the  past. 
I  would  appeal  to  those  of  my  co-religionists  who  think 
otherwise  to  suspend  their  judgment  for  a  time.  That 
Roman  Catholicism  is  firmly  established  in  Ireland  is  a 
fact  of  the  situation  which  they  must  admit,  and  as  this 
involves  the  continued  powerful  influence  of  the  priest- 
hood upon  the  character  of  the  people,  it  is  surely  good 
policy  by  liberality  and  fair  dealing,  especially  in  the 
matter  of  education,  to  turn  this  influence  towards  the 
upbuilding  of  our  national  life. 

To  sum  up  the  influence  of  religion  and  religious  con- 
troversy in  Ireland,  as  it  presents  itself  from  the 
only  standpoint  from  which  I  have  approached  the 
matter  in  this  chapter,  namely,  that  of  material,  social, 
and  intellectual  progress,  I  find  that  while  the  Protestants 
have  given,  and  continue  to  give,  a  fine  example  of  thrift 
and  industry  to  the  rest  of  the  nation,  the  attitude  of  a 
section  of  them  towards  the  majority  of  their  fellow- 
countrymen  has  been  a  bigoted  and  unintelligent 
one.  On  the  other  hand,  I  have  learned  from  practical 
experience  amongst  the  Roman  Catholic  people  of  Ire- 
land that,  while  more  free  from  bigotry,  in  the  sense 


NORTH    AND    SOUTH.  121 

in  which  that  word  is  usually  applied,  they  are  apathetic, 
thriftless,  and  almost  non-industrial,  and  that  they  espe- 
cially require  the  exercise  of  strengthening  influences  on 
their  moral  fibre.  I  have  dealt  with  their  shortcomings 
at  much  greater  length  than  with  those  of  Protestants, 
because  they  have  much  more  bearing  on  the  subject 
matter  of  this  book.  North  and  South  have  each  virtues 
which  the  other  lacks ;  each  has  much  to  learn  from  the 
other ;  but  the  home  of  the  strictly  civic  virtues  and  effi- 
ciencies is  in  Protestant  Ireland  The  work  of  the  future 
in  Ireland  will  be  to  break  down  in  social  intercourse  the 
barriers  of  creed  as  well  as  those  of  race,  politics,  and 
class,  and  thus  to  promote  the  fruitful  contact  of  North 
and  South,  and  the  concentration  of  both  on  the  welfare 
of  their  common  country.  In  the  case  of  those  of  us, 
of  whatever  religious  belief,  who  look  to  a  future  for  our 
country  commensurate  with  the  promise  of  her  un- 
developed resources  both  of  intellect  and  soil,  it  is  of 
the  essence  of  our  hope  that  the  qualities  which  are  in 
great  measure  accountable  for  the  actual  economic  and 
educational  backwardness  of  so  many  of  our  fellow- 
countrymen,  and  for  the  intolerance  of  too  many  who 
aje  not  backward  in  either  respect,  are  not  purely  racial 
or  sectarian,  but  are  the  transitory  growth  of  days  and 
deeds  which  we  must  all  try  to  forget  if  our  work  for 
Ireland  is  to  endure. 


CHAPTER   V. 
A  PRACTICAL  VIEW  OF  IRISH  EDUCATION. 

A  little  learning,  we  are  told,  is  a  dangerous  thing ; 
and  in  their  dealings  with  Irish  education  the  English 
should  have  discovered  that  this  danger  is  accentuated 
when  the  little  learning  is  combined  with  much  native  wit. 
In  the  days  when  religious  persecution  was  universal — 
only,  be  it  remembered,  a  few  generations  ago — it  was 
the  policy  of  England  to  avert  this  danger  by  prohibiting, 
as  far  as  possible,  the  acquisition  by  Irish  Roman 
Catholics  of  any  learning  at  all.  After  the  Union, 
Englishmen  began  to  feel  their  responsibility  for  the 
state  of  Ireland,  a  state  of  poverty  and  distress  which 
culminated  in  the  Famine.  Knowledge  was  then  no 
longer  withheld :  indeed  the  English  sincerely  desired 
to  dispel  our  darkness  and  enable  us  to  share  in  the 
wisdom,  and  so  in  the  prosperity,  of  the  predominant 
partner.  In  their  attempts  to  educate  us  they  dealt 
with  what  they  saw  on  the  surface,  and  moulded  their 
educational  principles  upon  what  they  knew ;  but  they 
did  not  know  Ireland.  Even  if  we  excuse  them  for  pay- 
ing scant  attention  to  what  they  were  told  by  Irishmen, 
they  should  have  given  more  heed  to  the  reports  of  their 
own  Royal  Commissions. 

We  have  so  far  seen  that  the  Irish  mind  has  been  in 


ENGLISH  EDUCATION  IN  IRELAND.  123 

regard  to  economics,  politics,  and  even  some  phases  of 
religious  influence,  a  mind  warped  and  diseased,  de- 
prived of  good  nutrition  and  fed  on  fancies  or  fictions, 
out  of  which  no  genuine  growth,  industrial  or  other,  was 
possible.  The  one  thing  that  might  have  strengthened 
and  saved  a  people  with  such  a  political,  social,  and 
religious  history,  and  such  racial  characteristics,  was  an 
educational  system  which  would  have  had  special  regard 
to  that  history,  and  which  would  have  been  a  just 
expression  of  the  better  mind  of  the  people  whom  it 
was  intended  to  serve. 

Now  this  is  exactly  what  was  denied  to  Ireland.  Not 
merely  has  all  educational  legislation  come  from  Eng- 
land, in  the  sense  of  being  based  on  English  models  and 
thought  out  by  Englishmen  largely  out  of  touch  and 
sympathy  with  the  peculiar  needs  of  Ireland,  but  when- 
ever there  has  been  genuine  native  thought  on  Irish 
educational  problems,  it  has  been  either  ignored  alto- 
gether or  distorted  till  its  value  and  significance  were 
lost.  And  in  this  matter  we  can  claim  for  Ireland  that 
there  was  in  the  country  during  the  first  half  of  the  nine- 
teenth century,  when  England  was  trying  her  best  to 
provide  us  with  a  sound  English  education,  a  compara- 
tively advanced  stage  of  home-grown  Irish  thought  upon 
the  educational  needs  of  the  people.  Take,  for  example, 
the  Society  for  Promoting  Elementary  Education  among 
the  Irish  Poor,  know  as  the  Kildare  Street  Society, 
which  was  founded  as  early  as  the  year  1811.  The  first 
resolution  passed  by  this  body,  which  was  composed  of 


124  A    PRACTICAL    VIEW    OF    IRISH    EDUCATION. 

prominent  Dublin  citizens  of  all  religious  beliefs,  was  set 
out  as  follows  : — 

(i.)  Resolved — That  promoting  the  education  of  the 
poor  of  Ireland  is  a  grand  object  which  every  Irishman 
anxious  for  the  welfare  and  prosperity  of  his  country 
ought  to  have  in  view  as  the  basis  upon  which  the  morals 
and  true  happiness  of  the  country  can  be  best  secured. 

This  Society,  it  is  true,  did  not  see  or  foresee  that 
any  system  of  mixed  religious  education  was  doomed  to 
failure  in  Ireland,  but  they  took  a  wide  view  of  the 
place  of  education  in  a  nation's  development,  and  the 
character  of  the  education  which  their  schools  actually 
dispensed  was  admirable.  This  hopeful  and  enterprising 
educational  movement  is  described  by  Mr.  Lecky  in  a 
passage  from  which  I  take  a  few  extracts : — 

The  "  Kildare  Street  Society "  which  received  an  en- 
dowment from  Government,  and  directed  National  educa- 
tion from  1812  to  1831,  was  not  proselytising,  and  it  was 
for  some  time  largely  patronized  by  Roman  Catholics. 
It  is  certainly  by  no  means  deserving  of  the  contempt 
which  some  writers  have  bestowed  on  it,  and  if  measured 
by  the  spirit  of  the  time  in  which  it  was  founded  it  will 
appear  both  liberal  and  useful.  .  .  .  The  object  of  the 
schools  was  stated  to  be  united  education,  "  taking 
common  Christian  ground  for  the  foundation,  and  exclud- 
ing all  sectarian  distinctions  from  every  part  of  the 
arrangement ; "  "  drawing  the  attention  of  both  denomi- 
nations to  the  many  leading  truths  of  Christianity  in  which 
they  agree."  To  carry  out  this  principle  it  was  a  funda- 
mental rule  that  the  Bible  must  be  read  without  note  or 


IRISH   THOUGHT  ON  EDUCATION.  125 

comment  in  all  the  schools.  It  might  be  read  either  in 
the  Authorized  or  in  the  Douay  version.  ...  In  1825  there 
were  1,490  schools  connected  with  the  Society,  containing 
about  100,000  pupils.  The  improvements  introduced  into 
education  by  Bell,  Lancaster,  and  Pestalozzi  were  largely 
adopted.  Great  attention  was  paid  to  needlework.  .  .  . 
A  great  number  of  useful  publications  were  printed  by  the 
Society,  and  we  have  the  high  authority  of  Dr.  Uoyle  for 
stating  that  he  never  found  anything  objectionable  [to 
Catholics]  in  them.* 

Take,  again,  as  an  evidence  of  the  progressive  spirit 
of  the  Irish  thinkers  on  education,  the  remarkable 
scheme  of  national  education  which,  after  the  pas- 
sing of  the  Catholic  Emancipation  Act,  was  formulated 
by  Mr.  Thomas  Wyse,  of  Waterford.  In  addition  to 
elementary  schools,  Mr.  Wyse  proposed  to  establish  in 
every  county,  '  an  academy  for  the  education  of  the 
middle  class  of  society  in  those  departments  of  know- 
ledge most  necessary  to  those  classes,  and  over  those  a 
College  in  each  of  the  four  provinces,  managed  by  a 
Committee  representative  of  the  interests  of  the  several 
counties  of  the  provinces.'  '  It  is  a  matter  of  impor- 
tance,' wrote  Mr.  Wyse,  '  for  the  simple  and  efficient 
working  of  the  whole  system  of  national  education,  that 
each  part  should  as  much  as  possible  be  brought  into 
co-operation  and  accord  with  the  others.'  He  foresaw, 
too,  that  one  of  the  needs  of  the  Irish  temperament  was 
a  training  in  science  which  would  cultivate  the  habits  of 
'  education,  observation,  and  reasoning,'  and  he  pointed 

*  Lcadtrs  of  Public  Opinion  in  Ireland,  II.,  122-4. 


126  A    PRACTICAL    VIEW    OF    IRISH    EDUCATION. 

out  that  the  peculiar  manufactures,  trades,  and  occupa- 
tions of  the  several  localities  would  determine  the  course 
of  studies.  Mr.  Wyse's  memorandum  on  education  led, 
as  is  well  known,  to  the  creation  of  the  Board  of 
National  Education,  but,  to  quote  Dr.  Starkie,*  the 
present  Resident  Commissioner  of  the  Board,  '  the 
more  important  part  of  the  scheme,  dealing  with  a 
university  and  secondary  education,  was  shelved,  in  spite 
of  Mr.  Wyse's  warnings  that  it  was  imprudent,  dan- 
gerous, and  pernicious  to  the  social  condition  of  the 
country,  and  to  its  future  tranquillity,  that  so  much 
encouragement  should  be  given  to  the  education  of  the 
lower  classes,  without  at  the  same  time  due  provision 
being  made  for  the  education  of  the  middle  and  upper 
classes.' 

As  still  another  evidence  of  the  sound  thought  on 
educational  problems  which  came  from  Irishmen  who 
knew  the  actual  conditions  of  their  own  country  and 
people,  the  case  of  the  agricultural  instruction  adminis- 
tered by  the  National  Board  is  pertinent.  The  late  Sir 
Patrick  Keenan  has  told  us  that  landlords  and  others  who 
on  political  and  religious  grounds  distrusted  the  National 
system,  turned  to  this  feature  of  the  operations 
of  the  National  Board  with  the  greatest  fervour. 
A  scheme  of  itinerant  instruction  in  agriculture, 
which  had  a  curious  resemblance  to  that  which  the 
Department  of  Agriculture  is  now  organising,  was 
developed,  and  was  likely  to  have  worked  with  the 

*   Recent  Reforms  in  Irish  Education,  p.  7. 


NEGLECT   OF   NATIVE  THOUGHT.  127 

greatest  advantage  to  the  country  at  large.  Sir 
Patrick  Keenan,  who  knew  Ireland  and  the  Irish 
people  well,  speaks  of  this  part  of  the  scheme  as  '  the 
most  fruitful  experiment  in  the  material  interests  of  the 
country  that  was  ever  attempted.  It  was,'  he  adds, 
'  through  the  agency  of  this  corps  of  practical  instructors 
that  green  cropping  as  a  systematic  feature  in  farming 
was  introduced  into  the  South  and  West,  and  even  into 
the  central  parts  of  Ireland.'  But  all  the  hopes  thus 
raised  went  down,  not  before  any  intrinsic  difficulties  in 
the  scheme  itself,  or  before  any  adverse  opinion  to  it  in 
Ireland,  but  before  the  opposition  of  the  Liverpool 
Financial  Reform  Association,  who  had  their  own  views 
as  to  the  limits  of  State  interference  with  agriculture. 
These  examples,  drawn  from  different  stages  of  Irish 
educational  history,  might  easily  be  multiplied,  but  they 
will  serve  as  typical  instances  of  that  want  of  recogni- 
tion by  English  statesmen  of  Irish  thought  on  Irish 
problems,  and  that  ignoring  of  Irish  sentiment — as  dis- 
tinguished from  Irish  sentimentality — which  I  insist  is 
the  basal  element  in  the  misunderstandings  of  Irish 
problems. 

I  now  come  to  a  brief  consideration  of  some  facts  of 
the  present  educational  situation,  and  I  shall  indicate, 
for  those  readers  who  are  not  familiar  with  current 
events  in  Ireland,  the  significant  evolution,  or  revolu- 
tion, through  which  Irish  education  is  passing.  Within 
the  last  eight  years  we  have  had  in  Ireland  three  very 
remarkable  reports — in  themselves  symptoms  of  a  wide- 


128  A    PRACTICAL    VIEW    OF    IRISH    EDUCATION. 

spread  unrest  and  dissatisfaction — on  the  educational 
systems  of  the  country.  I  allude  to  the  reports  of  two 
Viceregal  Commissions,  one  on  Manual  and  Practical 
Instruction  in  our  Primary  Schools,  and  the  other  on  our 
Intermediate  Education ;  and  to  the  recent  report  by  a 
Royal  Commission  on  University  Education.  These 
reports  cover  the  three  grades  of  our  educational  system, 
and  each  of  them  contains  a  strong  denunciation  and  a 
scathing  criticism  of  the  existing  provision  and  methods 
of  instruction  in  elementary,  secondary,  and  university 
education  (outside  Dublin  University),  respectively.  One 
and  all  showed  that  the  education  to  be  had  in  our 
primary  and  secondary  schools,  as  well  as  in  the 
examining  body  known  as  the  Royal  University,  had 
little  regard  to  the  industrial  or  economic  conditions  of 
the  country.  We  find,  for  example,  agriculture  taught 
out  of  a  text  book  in  the  primary  schools,  with  the  result 
that  the  gamins  of  the  Belfast  streets  secured  the  highest 
marks  in  the  subject.  In  the  Intermediate  system  are 
to  be  found  anomalies  of  a  similar  kind,  which  could  not 
long  have  survived  if  there  had  been  a  living  opinion  on 
educational  matters  in  Ireland.  No  careful  reader  of 
the  evidence  given  before  the  Commissions  can  fail 
to  see  that  under  our  educational  system  the  schools 
were  practically  bribed  to  fall  in  with  a  stereotyped 
course  of  studies  which  left  scant  room  for  elasticity 
and  adaptation  to  local  needs;  that  the  teacher  was, 
to  all  intents  and  purposes,  deprived  of  healthy  initiative  ; 
and  that  the  Irish  parents  must  as  a  body  have  been 


EDUCATION  NOT   IN   TOUCH  WITH  LIFE. 

in  the  dark  as  to  the  bearing  of  their  children's  studies 
on  their  probable  careers  in  life.  A  deep  and  whole- 
some impression  was  made  in  Ireland  by  the  exposure  of 
the  intrinsic  evils  of  a  system  calculated  in  my  opinion  to 
turn  our  youth  into  a  generation  of  second-rate  clerks, 
with  a  distinct  distaste  for  any  industrial  or  productive 
occupation  in  which  such  qualities  as  initiative,  self- 
reliance,  or  judgment  were  called  for. 

I  am  told  by  competent  authorities  that  there  is  not  a 
single  educational  principle  laid  down  in  either  the  report 
on  Manual  Instruction  or  on  Intermediate  Education, 
which  was  not  known  and  applied  at  least  half  a  century 
ago  in  continental  countries.  In  fact,  in  the  Recess  Com- 
mittee investigations,  as  any  reader  of  the  report  of  that 
body  can  see  for  himself,  the  Committee,  guided  by 
foreign  experience,  foreshadowed  practically  every  re- 
form now  being  put  into  operation.  It  is  better,  of 
course,  that  we  should  reform  late  than  never,  but  it  is 
well  to  bear  in  mind  also,  so  far  as  the  problems  of  this 
book  are  concerned,  how  far  the  education  of  the 
country  has  fallen  short  of  any  sound  standard, 
and  how  little  could  have  been  expected  from  the 
working  of  our  system.  The  curve  of  Irish  illiteracy 
has  indeed  fallen  continuously  with  each  succeeding  cen- 
sus, but  true  education  as  opposed  to  mere  instruction 
has  languished  sadly. 

Together  with  my  friends  and  fellow-workers  in  the 
self-help  movement,  I  believe  that  the  problem  of  Irisli 

education,  like  all  other  Irish  problems,  must  be  recon- 

K 


130  A    PRACTICAL   VIEW    OF   IRISH    EDUCATION. 

sidered  from  the  standpoint  of  its  relation  to  the  practical 
affairs  and  everyday  life  of  the  people  of  Ireland.  The 
needs  and  opportunities  of  the  industrial  struggle  must, 
in  fact,  mould  into  shape  our  educational  policy  and 
programmes.  We  are  convinced  that  there  is  little 
hope  of  any  real  solution  of  the  more  general  prob- 
lem of  national  education,  unless  and  until  those  in 
direct  contact  with  the  specific  industries  of  the  country 
succeed  in  bringing  to  the  notice  of  those  engaged  in  the 
framing  of  our  educational  system  the  kind  and  degree  of 
the  defects  in  the  industrial  character  of  our  people 
which  debar  them  from  successful  competition  with  other 
countries.  Education  in  Ireland  has  been  too  long  a 
thing  apart  from  the  economic  realities  of  the  country — 
with  what  result  we  know.  In  the  work  of  the  Depart- 
ment of  Agriculture  and  Technical  Instruction  for 
Ireland,  an  attempt  is  being  made  to  establish  a 
vital  relation  between  industrial  education  and  industrial 
life.  It  is  desired  to  try,  at  this  critical  stage  of  our 
development,  the  experiment — I  call  it  an  experiment 
only  because  it  does  not  seem  to  have  been  tried  before 
in  Ireland — of  directing  our  instruction  with  a  conscious 
and  careful  regard  to  the  probable  future  careers  of  those 
we  are  educating. 

This  attempt  touches,  of  course,  only  one  department 
of  the  whole  educational  problem,  much  of  which  it 
would  be  quite  outside  my  present  purpose  to  discuss. 
But  I  must  guard  against  the  supposition  that  in  our 
insistence  upon  the  importance  of  the  practical  side  of 


PRACTICAL    VALUE   OF    '  THE  HUMANITIES.' 

education  we  are  under  any  doubt  as  to  the  great  import- 
ance of  the  literary  side.  My  friends  and  I  have  been 
deeply  impressed  by  the  educational  experience  of 
Denmark,  where  the  people,  who  are  as  much  dependent 
on  agriculture  as  are  the  Irish,  have  brought  it  by  means 
of  organisation  to  a  more  genuine  success  than  it  has 
attained  anywhere  else  in  Europe.  Yet  an  inquirer  will 
at  once  discover  that  it  is  to  the  "  High  Schools  "  founded 
by  Bishop  Grundtvig,  and  not  to  the  agricultural  schools, 
which  are  also  excellent,  that  the  extraordinary  national 
progress  is  mainly  due.  A  friend  of  mine  who  was 
studying  the  Danish  system  of  State  aid  to  agriculture, 
found  this  to  be  the  opinion  of  the  Danes  of  all  classes, 
and  was  astounded  at  the  achievements  of  the  associa- 
tions of  farmers,  not  only  in  the  manufacture  of  butter, 
but  in  a  far  more  difficult  undertaking,  the  manufacture 
of  bacon  in  large  factories  equipped  with  all  the  most 
modern  machinery  and  appliances  which  science  had 
devised  for  the  production  of  the  finished  article.  He  at 
first  concluded  that  this  success  in  a  highly  technical 
industry  by  bodies  of  farmers  indicated  a  very  perfect 
system  of  technical  education.  But  he  soon  found  another 
cause.  As  one  of  the  leading  educators  and  agriculturists 
of  the  country  put  it  to  him :  'It's  not  technical  instruc- 
tion, it's  the  humanities.'  I  would  like  to  add  that  it  is 
also,  if  I  may  coin  a  term,  the  '  nationalities,'  for  nothing 
is  more  evident  to  the  student  of  Danish  education  or,  I 
might  add,  of  the  excellent  system  of  the  Christian 
Brothers  in  Ireland,  than  that  one  of  the  secrets  of  their 


132  A    PRACTICAL    VIEW    OF    IRISH    EDUCATION. 

success  is  to  be  found  in  their  national  basis  and  their 
foundation  upon  the  history  and  literature  of  the  country. 

To  sum  up  the  educational  situation  in  Ireland,  it  is  not 
too  much  to  say  that  all  our  forms  of  education,  technical 
and  general,  hang  loose.  We  lack  a  body  of  trained 
teachers ;  we  have  no  alert  and  informed  public  opinion 
on  education  and  its  function  in  regard  to  life  ;  and  there 
is  no  proper  provision  for  research  work  in  all  branches, 
a  deficiency,  which,  I  am  told  by  those  who  have  given 
deep  thought  and  long  study  to  these  problems,  inevit- 
ably reacts  most  disastrously  on  the  general  educational 
system  of  the  country.  This  state  of  things  appears  not 
unnatural  when  we  remember  that  the  Penal  Laws  were 
not  repealed  till  almost  the  close  of  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tury, and  that  a  large  majority  of  the  Irish  people  had  not 
full  and  free  access  to  even  primary  and  secondary  educa- 
tion until  the  passing  of  the  Emancipation  Act  in  1829. 
At  the  present  day,  the  absence  of  any  provision  for 
higher  education  of  which  Roman  Catholics  will  avail 
themselves  is  not  merely  an  enormous  loss  in  itself,  but 
it  reacts  most  adversely  upon  the  whole  educational 
machinery,  and  consequently  upon  the  whole  public  life 
and  thought  of  that  section  of  the  nation. 

One  of  the  very  first  things  I  had  to  learn  when  I 
came  into  direct  touch  with  educational  problems,  was 
that  the  education  of  a  country  cannot  be  divided  into 
water-tight  compartments,  and  each  part  legislated  for 
or  discussed  solely  on  its  merits  and  without  reference 
to  the  other  parts.  I  see  now  very  clearly  that  the 


IMPORTANCE   OF  UNIVERSITY  EDUCATION.  133 

educational  system  of  a  country  is  an  organic  whole, 
the  working  of  any  part  of  which  necessarily  has  an 
influence   on   the   working  of  the  rest.     I   had  always 
looked  upon  the  lower,  secondary,  and  higher  grades  as 
the  first,  second,  and  third  storeys  of  the  educational 
house,  and  I  am  not  quite  sure  that  I  attached  sufficient 
importance  to  the  staircase.     My  view  has  now  changed, 
and  I  find  myself  regarding  the  University  as  a  founda- 
tion and  support  of  the  primary  and  secondary  school. 
It  was  not  on  purely  pedagogic  grounds  that  I  added 
to  my  other  political  irregularities  the  earnest  advocacy 
of   such   a   provision   for   higher   education   as   Roman 
Catholics  will  avail  themselves  of.     This  great  need  was 
revealed  to  me  in  my  study  of  the  Irish  mind  and  of  the 
direction  in  which  it  could  look  for  its  higher  develop- 
ment.    My  belief  is  based  on  practical  experience ;   my 
point  of  view  is  that  of  the  economist.     When  the  new 
economic  mission  in  Ireland  began  now  fourteen  years 
ago,  we  had  to  undertake,  in  addition  to  our  practical 
programme,  a  kind  of  University  extension  work  with 
the  important  omission  of  the  University.     We  had  to 
bring  home  to  adult  farmers  whose  general  education 
was  singularly  poor,  though  their  native  intelligence  was 
keen  and  receptive,  a  large  number  of  general  ideas 
bearing  on  the  productive  and  distributive  side  of  their 
industry.     Our    chief    obstacles    arose    from    the    lack 
of  trained   economic   thought    among    all    classes,    and 
especially  among  those  to  whom  the  majority  looked  for 
guidance.    The  air  was  thick  with  economic  fallacies  or 


134  A    PRACTICAL   VIEW    OF   IRISH    EDUCATION. 

half -truths.  We  were,  it  is  true,  successful  beyond  our 
expectations  in  planting  in  apparently  uncongenial  soil 
sound  economic  principles.  But  our  success  was  mainly 
due,  as  I  shall  show  later,  to  our  having  used  the  asso- 
ciative instincts  of  the  Irish  peasant  to  help  out  the 
working  of  our  theories ;  and  we  became  convinced  that 
if  a  tithe  of  our  priests,  public  men,  national  school 
teachers,  and  members  of  our  local  bodies  had  received 
a  university  education,  we  should  have  made  much  more 
rapid  progress. 

I  hardly  know  how  to  describe  the  mental  atmos- 
phere in  which  we  were  working.  It  would  be  no  libel 
upon  the  public  opinion  upon  which  we  sought  to  make 
an  impression  to  say  that  it  really  allowed  no  question 
to  be  discussed  on  its  merits.  Public  opinion  on  social 
and  economic  questions  is  changing  now,  but  I  cannot 
associate  the  change  with  any  influence  emanating  from 
institutions  of  higher  education.  In  other  countries,  so 
far  as  my  investigations  have  extended,  the  universities 
do  guide  economic  thought  and  have  a  distinct  though 
wholly  unofficial  function  as  a  court  of  appeal  upon 
questions  relating  to  the  material  progress  of  the 
communities  amongst  which  they  are  situated.  Of 
such  institutions  there  are  in  Ireland  only  two  which 
could  be  expected  to  direct  in  any  large  way  the 
thought  of  the  country  upon  economic  and  other  im- 
portant national  questions — Maynooth,  and  Trinity 
College,  Dublin.  Whether  in  their  widely  different 
spheres  of  influence  these  two  institutions  could,  under 


THE  NATIONAL  INFLUENCE  OF  MAYNOOTH.  135 

conditions  other  than  those  prevailing,  have  so  met 
the  requirements  of  the  country  as  to  have  obviated 
what  is  at  present  an  urgent  necessity  for  a  complete 
reorganisation  of  higher  education  need  not  be  discussed  ; 
but  it  is  essential  to  my  argument  that  I  should  set  forth 
clearly  the  results  of  my  own  observation  upon  their 
influence,  or  rather  lack  of  influence,  upon  the  people 
among  whom  I  have  worked. 

The  influence  of  Maynooth,  actual  and  potential,  can 
hardly  be  exaggerated,  but  it  is  exercised  indirectly 
upon  the  secular  thought  of  the  country.  It  is  not  its 
function  to  make  a  direct  impression.  It  is  in  fact  only 
a  professional — I  had  almost  said  a  technical — school 
It  trains  its  students,  most  admirably  I  am  told,  in 
theology,  philosophy,  and  the  studies  subsidiary  to  these 
sciences,  but  always,  for  the  vast  majority  of  its  students, 
with  a  distinctly  practical  and  definite  missionary  end  in 
view.  There  is,  I  believe,  an  arts  course  of  modest 
scope,  designed  rather  to  meet  the  deficiencies  of  students 
whose  general  education  has  been  neglected  than  to 
serve  as  anything  in  the  nature  of  a  university  arts 
course.  I  am  quite  aware  of  the  value  of  a  sound  training 
in  mental  science  if  given  in  connection  with  a  full 
university  course,  but  I  am  equally  convinced  that  the 
Maynooth  education,  on  the  whole,  is  no  substitute  for 
a  university  course,  and  that  while  its  chief  end  of  turning 
out  a  large  number  of  trained  priests  has  been  fulfilled, 
it  has  not  given,  and  could  not  be  expected  to  have 
given,  that  broader  and  more  humane  culture  which  only 


136  A    PRACTICAL   VIEW    OF    IRISH    EDUCATION. 

a  university,  as  distinguished  from  a  professional  school, 
can  adequately  provide. 

Moreover,  under  the  Maynooth  system  young  clerics 
are  constantly  called  upon  to  take  a  part  in  the  life  of  a 
lay    community,    towards    which,    when    they    entered 
college,  they  were  in  no  position  of  responsibility,  and 
upon  which,  so  far  as  secular    matters    are    concerned, 
when  they  emerge  from  their  theological  training,  they 
are  no  better  adapted  to  exercise  a  helpful  influence. 
In  my  experience  of  priests  I  have  met  with  many  in 
whom  I  recognised  a  sincere  desire  to  attend  to  the 
material  and  social  well-being  of  their  flocks,  but  who 
certainly  had  not  that  breadth  of  view  and  understanding 
of  human  nature  which  perhaps  contact  with  the  laity 
during  the  years  in  which    they    were    passing  from 
discipline    to    authority    might    have    given    to    them. 
However  this  may  be,  it  is  clear  and  it  is  admitted  that 
education  as  opposed  to  professional  training  of  a.  high 
order    is    still,    generally  speaking,  a  want  among  the 
priests  of  Ireland,  and   I   look  forward  to  no  greater 
boon  from  a  University  or  University  College  for  Roman 
Catholics  than  its  influence,  direct  and  indirect,  on  a  body 
of  men  whose  prestige  and  authority  are  necessarily  so 
unique. 

It  is,  therefore,  to  Trinity  College,  or  the  University  of 
Dublin,  that  one  would  naturally  turn  as  to  a  great  centre 
of  thought  in  Ireland  for  help  in  the  theoretic  aspects, 
at  least,  of  the  practical  problems  upon  whose  successful 
solution  our  national  well-being  depends.  Judged 


THE  NATIONAL  INFLUENCE  OF   TRINITY.  137 

by  the  not  unimportant  test  of  the  men  it  has  supplied 
to  the  service  of  the  State  and  country  during  its  three 
centuries  of  educational  activity,  by  the  part  it  took  in 
one  of  the  brightest  epochs  of  these  three  centuries — the 
days  when  it  gave  Grattan  to  Grattan's  Parliament,  by 
the  work  and  reputation  of  the  alumni  it  could  muster 
to-day  within  and  without  its  walls,  our  venerable  seat 
of  learning  need  not  fear  comparison  with  any  similar 
institutions  in  Great  Britain.  It  may  also,  of  course,  be  said 
that  many  men  who  have  passed  through  Trinity  College 
have  impressed  the  thought  of  Ireland,  and,  indeed,  of 
the  world,  in  one  way  or  another — such  men  as,  to  take 
two  very  different  examples,  Burke  and  Thomas  Davis 
— but  on  some  of  the  very  best  spirits  amongst  these 
men  Trinity  College  and  its  atmosphere  have  exerted  in- 
fluence rather  by  repulsion  than  by  attraction ;  and  cer- 
tainly their  characteristics  of  temper  or  thought  have  not 
been  of  a  kind  which  those  best  acquainted  with  the 
atmosphere  of  Trinity  College  associate  with  that  insti- 
tution.     Still  nothing  can  detract   from  the  credit  of 
having  educated  such  men.     But  these  tests  and  stand- 
ards are,  for  my  present  purpose,  irrelevant.     I  am  not 
writing  a  book  on  Irish  educational  history,  or  even  a 
record  of  present-day  Irish  educational  achievement.     I 
am  rather  trying,   from  the  standpoint   of  a  practical 
worker  for  national  progress,  to  measure  the  reality  and 
strength  of  the  educational  and  other  influences  which 
are  actually  and  actively  operating  on  the  character  and 
intellect  of  the  majority  of  the  Irish  people,  moulding 


138  A    PRACTICAL   VIEW    OF    IRISH    EDUCATION. 

their  thought  and  directing  their  action  towards  the 
upbuilding  of  our  national  life. 

From  this  point  of  view  I  am  bound  to  say  that  Trinity 
College,  so  far  as  I  have  seen,  has  had  but  little  influence 
upon  the  minds  or  the  lives  of  the  people.  Nor  can  I 
find  that  at  any  period  of  the  extraordinarily  interesting 
economic  and  social  revolution,  which  has  been  in 
progress  in  Ireland  since  the  great  catastrophe  of  the 
Famine  period,  Dublin  University  has  departed  from 
its  academic  isolation  and  its  aloofness  from  the  great 
national  problems  that  were  being  worked  out.  The 
more  one  thinks  of  it,  indeed,  and  the  more  one  realises 
the  opportunities  of  an  institution  like  Trinity  College 
in  a  country  like  Ireland,  the  more  one  must  recognise 
how  small,  in  recent  times,  has  been  its  positive  influence 
on  the  mind  of  the  country,  and  how  little  it  has 
contributed  towards  the  solution  of  any  of  those  prob- 
lems, educational,  economic,  or  social,  that  were  clamant 
for  solution,  and  which  in  any  other  country  would  have 
naturally  secured  the  attention  of  men  who  ought  to 
have  been  leaders  of  thought. 

Whatever  the  causes,  and  many  may  be  assigned, 
this  unfortunate  lack  of  influence  on  the  part  of  Trinity 
College,  has  always  seemed  to  me  a  strong  supplemen- 
tary argument  for  the  creation  of  another  University  or 
University  College  on  a  more  popular  basis,  to  which 
the  Roman  Catholic  people  of  Ireland  would  have 
recourse.  From  the  fact  that  Maynooth  by  its  constitu- 
tion could  never  have  developed  into  a  great  national 


NECESSITY  FOR  UNIVERSITY  REFORM.         139 

University,*  and  that  Trinity  College  has  never,  as  a 
matter  of  fact,  done  so,  and  has  thus,  in  my  opinion,  missed 
a  unique  opportunity,  it  has  come  about  that  Ireland  has 
been  without  any  great  centre  of  thought  whose  influ- 
ence would  have  tended  to  leaven  the  mass  of  mental 
inactivity  or  random-thinking  so  prevalent  in  Ireland,  and 
would  have  created  a  body  of  educated  public  opinion 
sufficiently  informed  and  potent  to  secure  the  study  and 
discussion  on  their  merits  of  questions  of  vital  interest 
to  the  country.  The  demoralising  atmosphere  of  par- 
tisanship which  hangs  over  Ireland  would,  I  am 
convinced,  gradually  give  way  before  an  organised 
system  of  education  with  a  thoroughly  democratic 
University  at  its  head,  which  would  diffuse  amongst  the 
people  at  large  a  sense  of  the  value  of  a  balanced  judg- 
ment on,  and  a  true  appreciation  of,  the  real  forces 
with  which  Ireland  has  to  deal  in  building  up  her 
fortunes. 

To  discuss  the  merits  of  the  different  solutions  which 
have  been  proposed  for  the  vexed  problem  -of  higher 
education  in  Ireland  would  be  beyond  the  scope  of  this 
book.  The  question  will  have  to  be  faced,  and  all  I  need 
do  here  is  to  state  the  conditions  which  the  solution  will 
have  to  fulfil  if  it  is  to  deal  with  the  aspects  of  the  Irish 
Question  with  which  the  new  movement  is  practically 
concerned  What  is  most  needed  is  a  University  that  will 

*  It  was  not  authorised  to  give  degrees  to  lay  students ;  and  even 
the  admission  of  lay  students  to  an  Arts  course  was  prohibited  by 
Government,  lest  Catholic  students  should  be  drawn  away  from  Trinity 
College.  See  Cornwallis  Correspondence,  III.,  366-8. 


140  A    PRACTICAL   VIEW    OF   IRISH    EDUCATION. 

reach  down  to  the  rural  population,  much  in  the  same 
way  as  the  Scottish  Universities  do,  and  a  lower  scale 
of  fees  will  be  required  than  Trinity  College,  with  its 
diminished  revenues,  could  establish.  Already  I  can 
see  that  the  work  of  the  new  Department,  acting-  in 
conjunction  with  local  bodies,  urban  and  rural,  through- 
out the  country,  will  provide  a  considerable  number  of 
scholarships,  bursaries,  and  exhibitions  for  young  men 
who  are  being  prepared  to  take  part  in  the  very  real, 
but  rather  hazily  understood,  industrial  revival  which  is 
imminent.  Leaving  sectarian  controversies  out  of  the 
question,  the  type  of  institution  which  is  required  in 
order  to  provide  adequately  for  the  classes  now  left 
outside  the  influence  of  higher  education  is  an  in- 
stitution pre-eminently  national  in  its  aims,  and  one 
intimately  associated  with  the  new  movements  making 
for  the  development  of  our  national  resources. 

Unfortunately,  however,  in  Ireland,  and  indeed  in 
England  too,  there  is  a  tendency  to  regard  educational 
institutions  almost  solely  as  they  will  affect  religion.  At 
least  it  is  difficult  to  arouse  any  serious  interest  in  them 
except  from  this  point  of  view.  I  welcome,  therefore,  the 
striking  answers  given  to  the  queries  of  Lord  Robertson, 
Chairman  of  the  University  Commission,  by  Dr. 
O'Dwyer,  the  Roman  Catholic  Bishop  of  Limerick,  who 
boldly  and  wisely  placed  the  question  before  the 
country  in  the  light  in  which  cleric  and  layman  should 
alike  regard  it : — 

The    Chairman. — (413)  :     "I    suppose   you    believe   a 


UNIVERSITY   REFORM  A    NATIONAL   QUESTION.  141 

Catholic  University,  such  as  you  propose,  will  strengthen 
Roman  Catholicism  in  Ireland?" — "  It  is  not  easy  to 
answer  that  ;  not  so  easy  as  it  looks."  (414)  :  — "  But  it 
won't  weaken  it,  or  you  would  not  be  here?" — "  It  would 
educate  Catholics  in  Ireland  very  largely,  and,  of  course, 
a  religious  denomination  composed  of  a  body  of  educated 
men  is  stronger  than  a  religious  denomination  composed  of 
ignorant  men.  In  that  sense  it  would  strengthen  Roman 
Catholicism."  (415)  : — "  Is  there  any  sense  in  which  it 
won't?" — "  As  far  as  religion  is  concerned,  I  do  not  know 
how  a  University  would  work  out.  If  you  ask  me  now 
whether  I  think  that  that  University  in  a  certain  number 
of  years  would  become  a  centre  of  thought,  strengthening 
the  Catholic  faith  in  Ireland,  I  cannot  tell  you.  It  is  a 
leap  in  the  dark."  (416)  : — "  But  it  is  in  the  hope  that 
it  will  strengthen  your  own  Church  that  you  propose  it?" 
— "  No,  it  is  not,  by  any  means.  We  are  Bishops,  but  we 
are  Irishmen,  also,  and  we  want  to  serve  our  country."* 

Equally  significant  were  the  statements  of  Dr.  O'Dea, 
the  official  spokesman  of  Maynooth,  when  he  said, 

I  regard  the  interest  of  the  laity  in  the  settlement  of 
the  University  Question  as  supreme.  The  clergy  are  but 
a  small,  however  important,  part  of  the  nation,  and  the 
laity  have  never  had  an  institution  of  higher  education 
comparable  to  Maynooth  in  magnitude  or  resources.  I 
recognise,  therefore,  that  the  educational  grievances  of  the 
laity  are  much  more  pressing  than  those  of  the  clergy.  .  . 
It  is  generally  admitted  that  Irish  priests  hold  a  posi- 
tion of  exceptional  influence,  due  to  historical  causes,  the 
intensely  religious  character  of  the  people,  and  the  want 
of  Catholic  laymen  qualified  by  education  and  position  for 
social  and  political  leadership.  What  Bishop  Berkeley 
said  of  them  in  1749,  in  his  letter,  A  Word  to  the  Wise, 
still  holds  true,  '  That  no  set  of  men  on  earth  have  it  in 
*  Appendix  to  First  Report,  p.  37. 


142  A    PRACTICAL   VIEW    OF    IRISH    EDUCATION. 

their  power  to  do  good  on  easier  terms,  with  more  ad- 
vantage to  others,  and  less  pains  or  loss  to  themselves.' 
It  would  be  folly  to  expect  that  in  a  mixed  community  the 
State  should  do  anything  to  strengthen  or  perpetuate  this 
power  ;  but  this  result  will  certainly  not  follow  from  the 
more  liberal  education  of  the  clergy,  provided  equal  ad- 
vantages are  extended  to  the  laity.  On  the  contrary,  I 
am  convinced  that  if  the  void  in  the  lay  leadership  of  the 
country  be  filled  up  by  higher  education  of  the  better 
classes  among  the  Catholic  laity,  the  power  of  the  priests, 
so  far  as  it  is  abnormal  or  unnecessary  will  pass  away  ; 
and,  further,  if  I  believed,  with  many  who  are  opposed  to 
the  better  education  of  the  priesthood,  that  their  power 
is  based  on  falsehood  or  superstition,  I  would  unhesitat- 
ingly advocate  the  spread  of  higher  education  among  the 
laity  and  clergy  alike,  as  the  best  means  of  effectually 
sapping  and  disintegrating  it.* 

I  had  for  long  indulged  a  hope  that  a  university  of 
the  type  which  Ireland  requires  would  have  been  the 
outcome  of  a  great  national  educational  movement 
emanating  from  Trinity  College,  which  might,  at  this 
auspicious  hour,  have  surpassed  all  the  proud  achieve- 
ments of  its  three  hundred  years.  That  hope  was  dis- 
pelled when  the  cry  of  '  Hands  off  Trinity '  was  applied 
to  the  profane  hands  of  the  Royal  Commission.  Perhaps 
that  attitude  may  be  reconsidered  yet.  There  is  one 
hopeful  sentiment  which  is  often  heard  coming  from  that 
institution.  An  opinion  has  been  strongly  expressed  that 
nothing  ought  to  be  done  to  separate  in  secular  life  two 
sections  of  Irishmen  who  happen  to  belong  to  different 
creeds.  Whatever  may  be  the  logical  outcome  of  the 
position  taken  up  towards  the  University  problem  by 
*  Appendix  to  Third  Report,  pp.  283,  296. 


TWO  SOCIAL  CLASSES. 


those  who  give  expression  to  this  pious  opinion,  I  do  not 
for  a  moment  doubt  their  sincerity.  But  I  often  think 
that  too  much  importance  is  attached  to  the  dan- 
ger of  building  new  walls,  and  that  there  is  too 
little  appreciation  of  the  wide  and  deep  foundation 
of  the  already  existing  walls  between  the  two 
sections  of  Irishmen  who  are  so  unhappily  kept 
apart.  In  dealing  with  this,  as  with  all  large  Irish  prob- 
lems, it  had  better  be  frankly  recognised  that  there  are 
in  the  country  two  races,  two  creeds,  and,  what  is  too 
little  considered,  two  separate  spheres  of  economic  in- 
terest and  pursuit.  Socially  two  separate  classes  have 
naturally,  nay  inevitably,  arisen  out  of  these  distinctions. 
One  class  has  superior  advantages  in  many  ways  of 
great  importance.  The  other  class  is  far  more  numerous, 
produces  far  the  greater  proportion  of  the  nation's 
wealth,  and  is,  therefore,  from  the  national  point  of 
view,  of  greater  importance.  But  both  are  necessary. 
Both  must  be  adequately  provided  for  in  the  supreme 
matter  of  higher  education.  Above  all,  the  two  classes 
must  be  educated  to  regard  themselves  as  united  by  the 
bond  of  a  common  country  —  a  sentiment  which,  if 
genuine,  would  treat  differences  arising  from  whatever 
cause,  not  as  a  difficulty  in  the  way  of  national  progress, 
but  rather  as  affording  a  variety  of  opportunities  for 
national  expansion. 

I  do  not  concern  myself  as  to  the  exact  form  which  the 
new  institution  or  institutions  which  are  to  give  us  the 
absolutely  essential  advantage  of  higher  education  should 


144  A    PRACTICAL   VIEW    OF    IRISH    EDUCATION. 

take.  If  in  view  of  the  difference  in  the  requirements 
to  which  I  have  alluded,  and  the  complicated  pedagogic 
and  administrative  considerations  which  have  to  be  taken 
into  account,  schemes  of  co-education  of  Protestants  and 
Roman  Catholics  are  difficult  of  immediate  accomplish- 
ment, let  that  ideal  be  postponed.  The  two  creeds  can 
meet  in  the  playground  now :  they  can  meet  everywhere 
in  after  life.  Ireland  will  bring  them  together  soon 
enough  if  Ireland  is  given  a  chance,  and  when  the  time  is 
ripe  for  their  coming  together  in  higher  education  they 
will  come  together.  If  the  time  is  not  now  ripe  for  this 
ideal  there  is  no  justification  for  postponing  educational 
reform  until  the  relations  between  the  two  creeds  have 
been  elevated  to  a  plane  which,  in  my  opinion,  they 
will  never  reach  except  through  the  aid  of  that  culture 
which  a  widely  diffused  higher  education  alone  can 
afford. 

When  I  was  beginning  to  write  this  chapter  I  chanced 
to  pick  up  the  Chesterfield  Letters.  I  opened  the  book 
at  the  two  hundredth  epistle,  and,  curiously  enough, 
almost  the  first  sentence  which  caught  my  eye  ran : 
'  Education  more  than  nature  is  the  cause  of  that  differ- 
ence you  see  in  the  character  of  men.'  I  felt  myself  at 
first  in  strong  disagreement  with  this  aphorism.  But 
when  I  came  to  reflect  how  much  the  nature  of  one 
generation  must  be  the  outcome  of  the  education  of 
those  which  went  before  it,  I  gradually  came  to  see  the 
truth  in  Lord  Chesterfield's  words.  I  must  leave  it  to 


EDUCATION,  THE  CURE  FOR  OUR   DEFICIENCIES.          145 

experts  to  define  the  exact  steps  which  ought  to  be 
taken  to  make  the  general  education  of  this  country 
capable  of  cultivating  the  judgment,  strengthening  the 
will,  and  so  of  building  up  the  character.  But  every  day, 
every  thought,  I  give  to  the  problems  of  Irish  progress 
convinces  me  more  firmly  that  this  is  the  real  task  of 
educational  reform,  a  task  that  must  be  accomplished 
before  we  can  prove  to  those  who  brand  us  with  racial 
inferiority  that,  in  Ireland,  it  was  not  nature  that  has 
been  unkind  in  causing  the  difference  we  find  in  the 
character  of  men. 


CHAPTER  VI. 
THROUGH  THOUGHT  TO  ACTION. 

I  have  now  completed  my  survey  of  the  main  condi- 
tions which,  in  my  opinion,  must  be  taken  into  account 
by  anyone  who  would  understand  the  Irish  mind,  and 
still  more  by  those  who  seek  to  work  with  it  in  rebuilding 
the  fortunes  of  the  country.  The  task  has  been  one  of 
great  difficulty,  as  it  was  necessary  to  tell,  not  only  the 
truth — for  that  even  an  official  person  may  be  excused — 
but  also  the  whole  truth,  which,  unless  made  compulsory 
by  the  kissing  of  the  book,  is  regarded  as  a  gratuitous 
kissing  of  the  rod.  From  the  frying  pan  of  political  dis- 
pute, I  have  passed  into  the  fire  of  sectarian  controversy. 
I  have  not  hesitated  to  poach  on  the  preserves  of  his- 
torians and  economists,  and  have  even  bearded  the 
pedagogues  in  their  dens.  Before  my  stock  of  meta- 
phors is  exhausted,  let  me  say  that  I  have  one  hope  of 
escape  from  the  cross-fire  of  denunciation  which  inde- 
pendent speaking  about  Ireland  is  apt  to  provoke. 
I  once  witnessed  a  football  match  between  two 
villages,  one  of  which  favoured  a  political  party  called 
by  the  name  of  a  leader,  with  an  '  ism '  added  to  indicate 
a  policy,  the  other  adopting  the  same  name,  still  further 
elongated  by  the  prefix  '  anti.'  When  I  arrived  on  the 
scene  the  game  had  begun  in  deadly  earnest,  but  I 
noticed  the  ball  lying  unmolested  in  another  quarter  of 


AN  IRISHMAN'S  PHILOSOPHIC  DOUBT.  147 

the  field.  In  Irish  public  life  I  have  often  had  reason  to 
envy  that  ball,  and  perhaps  now  its  lot  may  be  mine, 
while  the  game  goes  on  and  the  critics  pay  attention  to 
each  other. 

To  my  friendly  critics  a  word  of  explanation  is  due. 
The  opinions  to  which  I  have  given  expression  are  based 
upon    personal  observation   and    experience    extending 
over  a  quarter  of  a  century  during  which  I  have  been  in 
close  touch  with  Irish  life  at  home,  and  not  unfamiliar 
with  it  abroad.     I  have  referred  to  history  only  when  I 
could  not  otherwise  account  for  social  and  economic  con- 
ditions with  which  I  came  into  contact,  or  with  which  I 
desired  practically  to  deal.     Whether  looking  back  over 
the  dreary  wastes  of  Anglo-Irish  history,  or  studying 
the  men  and  things  of  to-day,  I  came  to  conclusions 
which  differed  widely  from  what  I  had  been  taught  to 
believe  by  those  whose  theories  of  Irish  development  had 
not  been  subjected  to  any  practical  test.  Deeply  as  I  have 
felt  for  the  past  sufferings  of  the  Irish  people  and  their 
heritage  of  disability  and  distress,   I   could  not  bring 
myself  to  believe  that,  where  misgovernment  had  con- 
tinued so  long,  and    in    such    an    immense  variety  of 
circumstances  and  conditions,  the  governors  could  have 
been  alone  to  blame.    I  envied  those  leaders  of  popular 
thought  whose  confidence  in  themselves   and   in   their 
followers  was  shaken  by  no  such  reflections.     But  the 
more  I  listened  to  them  the  more  the  conviction  was 
borne  in  upon  me  that  they  were  seeking  to  build  an 
impossible  future  upon  an  imaginary  past. 


148  THROUGH    THOUGHT   TO    ACTION. 

Those  who  know  Ireland  from  within  are  aware  that 
Irish  thought  upon  Irish  problems  has  been  undergoing 
a  silent,  and  therefore  too  lightly  regarded  revolution. 
The  surface  of  Irish  life,  often  so  inexplicably  ruffled, 
and  sometimes  so  inexplicably  calm,  has  just  now  become 
smooth  to  a  degree  which  has  led  to  hasty  conclusions 
as  to  the  real  cause  and  the  inward  significance  of  the 
change.  To  chime  in  with  the  thoughtless  optimism  of 
the  hour  will  do  no  good  ;  but  a  real  understanding  of  the 
forces  which  have  created  the  existing  situation  will 
reveal  an  unprecedented  opportunity  for  those  who 
would  give  to  the  Irish  mind  that  full  and  free  develop- 
ment which  has  been  so  long  and,  as  I  have  tried  to 
show,  so  unnaturally  delayed. 

Among  these  new  forces  in  Irish  life  there  is  one 
which  has  been  greatly  misunderstood ;  and  yet  to  its 
influence  during  the  last  few  years  much  of  the  '  trans- 
formation scene  '  in  the  drama  of  the  Irish  Question  is 
really  due.  It  deserves  more  than  a  passing  notice  here, 
because,  while  its  aims  as  formulated  appear  somewhat 
restricted,  it  unquestionably  tends  in  practice  towards 
that  national  object  of  paramount  importance,  the 
strengthening  of  character.  I  refer  to  the  movement 
known  as  the  Gaelic  Revival.  Of  this  movement  I  am 
myself  but  an  outside  observer,  having  been  forced  to 
devote  nearly  all  my  time  and  energies  to  a  variety  of 
attempts  which  aim  at  the  doing  in  the  industrial  sphere 
of  very  much  the  same  work  as  that  which  the  Gaelic 
movement  attempts  in  the  intellectual  sphere — the  re- 


THE   GAELIC   MOVEMENT.  149 

habitation  of  Ireand  from  within.  But  in  the  course  of 
my  work  of  agricultural  and  industrial  development  I 
naturally  came  across  this  new  intellectual  force  and 
found  that  when  it  began  to  take  effect,  so  far  from 
diverting  the  minds  of  the  peasantry  from  the  practical 
affairs  of  life,  it  made  them  distinctly  more  amenable  to 
the  teaching  of  the  dry  economic  doctrine  of  which  I  was 
an  apostle.  The  reason  for  this  is  plain  enough  to  me 
now,  though,  like  all  my  theories  about  Ireland,  the  truth 
came  to  me  from  observation  and  practical  experience 
rather  than  as  the  result  of  philosophic  speculation.  For 
the  co-operative  movement  depended  for  its  success  upon 
a  two-fold  achievement.  In  order  to  get  it  started  at  all, 
its  principles  and  working  details  had  to  be  grasped  by 
the  Irish  peasant  mind  and  commended  to  his  intelli- 
gence. Its  further  development  and  its  hopes  of  perma- 
nence depend  upon  the  strengthening  of  character,  which, 
I  must  repeat,  is  the  foundation  of  all  Irish  progress. 

The  Irish  Agricultural  Organisation  Society*  exerts  its 
influence — a  now  established  and  rapidly-growing  influ- 
ence— mainly  through  the  medium  of  associations.  The 
Gaelic  movement,  on  the  other  hand,  acts  more  directly 
upon  the  individual,  and  the  two  forces  are  therefore  in 
a  sense  complementary  to  each  other.  Both  will  be 
seen  to  be  playing  an  important  part — I  should  say  a 
necessary  part — in  the  reconstruction  of  our  national  life. 
At  any  rate,  I  feel  that  it  is  necessary  to  my  argument 
that  I  should  explain  to  those  who  are  as  ill-informed 

*  This  body  is  fully  described  in  the  next  chapter. 


150  THROUGH    THOUGHT   TO   ACTION. 

about  the  Gaelic  revival  as  I  was  myself  until  its 
practical  usefulness  was  demonstrated  to  me,  what 
exactly  seems  to  be  the  most  important  outcome  of  the 
work  of  that  movement. 

The  Gaelic  League,  which  defines  its  objects  as  '  The 
preservation  of  Irish  as  the  national  language  of  Ireland 
and  the  extension  of  its  use  as  a  spoken  tongue ;  the 
study  and  publication  of  existing  Irish  literature  and  the 
cultivation  of  a  modern  literature  in  Irish,'  was  formed 
in  1893.  Like  the  Agricultural  Organisation  Society, 
the  Gaelic  League  is  declared  by  its  constitution  to  be 
'  strictly  non-political  and  non-sectarian,'  and,  like  it,  has 
been  the  object  of  much  suspicion,  because  severance 
from  politics  in  Ireland  has  always  seemed  to  the  poli- 
tician the  most  active  form  of  enmity.  Its  constitution, 
too,  is  somewhat  similar,  being  democratically  guided  in 
its  policy  by  the  elected  representatives  of  its  affiliated 
branches.  It  is  interesting  to  note  that  the  funds  with 
which  it  carries  on  an  extensive  propaganda  are  mainly 
supplied  from  the  small  contributions  of  the  poor.  It 
publishes  two  periodicals,  one  weekly  and  another 
monthly.  It  administers  an  income  of  some  £6,000  a 
year,  not  reckoning  what  is  spent  by  local  branches,  and 
has  a  paid  staff  of  eleven  officers,  a  secretary,  treasurer, 
and  nine  organisers,  together  with  a  large  number  of 
voluntary  workers.  It  resembled  the  agricultural  move- 
ment also  in  the  fact  that  it  made  very  little  headway 
during  the  first  few  years  of  its  existence.  But  it  had  a 
nucleus  of  workers  with  new  ideas  for  the  intellectual 


ANOTHER    IRISH    LEAGUE. 

regeneration  of  Ireland.  In  face  of  much  apathy  they 
persisted  with  their  propaganda,  and  they  have  at  last 
succeeded  in  making  their  ideas  understood.  So 
much  is  evident  from  the  rapidly-increasing  number 
of  affiliated  branches  of  the  League,  which  in  March, 
1903,  amounted  to  600,  almost  treble  the  number  regis- 
tered two  years  before.  But  even  this  does  not  convey 
any  idea  of  the  influence  which  the  movement  exerts. 
Within  the  past  year  the  teaching  of  the  Irish  language 
has  been  introduced  into  no  less  than  1,300  National 
Schools.  In  1900  the  number  of  schools  in  which  Irish 
was  taught  was  only  about  140.  The  statement  that  our 
people  do  not  read  books  is  generally  accepted  as  true, 
yet  the  sale  of  the  League  publications  during  one  year 
reached  nearly  a  quarter  of  a  million  copies.  These  re- 
sults cannot  be  left  unconsidered  by  anybody  who  wishes 
to  understand  the  psychology  of  the  Irish  mind.  The 
movement  can  truly  claim  to  have  effected  the  conversion 
of  a  large  amount  of  intellectual  apathy  into  genuine 
intellectual  activity. 

The  declared  objects  of  the  League — the  popularising 
of  the  national  language  and  literature — do  not  convey, 
perhaps,  an  adequate  conception  of  its  actual  work,  or 
of  the  causes  of  its  popularity.  It  seeks  to  develop  the 
intellectual,  moral,  and  social  life  of  the  Irish  people  from 
within,  and  it  is  doing  excellent  work  in  the  cause  of  tem- 
perance. Its  president,  Dr.  Douglas  Hyde,  in  his 
evidence  given  before  the  University  Commission,* 
*  See  Appendix  to  Third  Report,  p.  311. 


152  THROUGH    THOUGHT   TO    ACTION. 

pointed  out  that  the  success  of  the  League  was  due  to 
its  meeting  the  people  half  way ;  that  it  educated  them 
by  giving  them  something  which  they  could  appreciate 
and  assimilate ;  and  that  it  afforded  a  proof  that 
people  who  would  not  respond  to  alien  educational 
systems,  will  respond  with  eagerness  to  something  they 
can  call  their  own.  The  national  factor  in  Ireland  has 
been  studiously  eliminated  from  national  education,  and 
Ireland  is  perhaps  the  only  country  in  Europe  where  it 
was  part  of  the  settled  policy  of  those  who  had  the  guid- 
ance of  education  to  ignore  the  literature,  history,  arts, 
and  traditions  of  the  people.  It  was  a  fatal  policy,  for  it 
obviously  tended  to  stamp  their  native  country  in  the 
eyes  of  Irishmen  with  the  badge  of  inferiority  and  to 
extinguish  the  sense  of  healthy  self-respect  which  comes 
from  the  consciousness  of  high  national  ancestry  and 
traditions.  This  policy,  rigidly  adhered  to  for  many 
years,  almost  extinguished  native  culture  among  Irish- 
men, but  it  did  not  succeed  in  making  another  form  of 
culture  acceptable  to  them.  It  dulled  the  intelligence  of 
the  people,  impaired  their  interest  in  their  own  surround- 
ings, stimulated  emigration  by  teaching  them  to  look  on 
other  countries  as  more  agreeable  places  to  live  in,  and 
made  Ireland  almost  a  social  desert.  Men  and 
women  without  culture  or  knowledge  of  literature  or  of 
music  have  succeeded  a  former  generation  who  were 
passionately  interested  in  these  things,  an  interest  which 
extended  down  even  to  the  wayside  cabin.  The  loss  of 
these  elevating  influences  in  Irish  society  probably 


THE    REAL   SPIRIT    OF    NATIONALITY.  153 

accounts  for  much  of  the  arid  nature  of  Irish  contro- 
versies, while  the  reaction  against  their  suppression  has 
given  rise  to  those  displays  of  rhetorical  patriotism  for 
which  the  Irish  language  has  found  the  expressive  term 
raimeis,  and  which  (thanks  largely  to  the  Gaelic  move- 
ment) most  people  now  listen  to  with  a  painful  and 
half-ashamed  sense  of  their  unreality. 

The  Gaelic  movement  has  brought  to  the  surface  senti- 
ments and  thoughts  which  had  been  developed  in  Gaelic 
Ireland  through  hundreds  of  years,  and  which  no  repres- 
sion had  been  able  to  obliterate  altogether,  but  which 
still  remained  as  a  latent  spiritual  inheritance  in  the  mind. 
And  now  this  stream,  which  has  long  run  underground, 
has  again  emerged  even  stronger  than  before,  because  an 
element  of  national  self-consciousness  has  been  added  at 
its  re-emergence.  A  passionate  conviction  is  gaining 
ground  that  if  Irish  traditions,  literature,  language,  art, 
music,  and  culture  are  allowed  to  disappear,  it  will 
mean  the  disappearance  of  the  race  ;  and  that  the  educa- 
tion of  the  country  must  be  nationalised  if  our  social, 
intellectual,  or  even  our  economic  position  is  to  be 
permanently  improved. 

With  this  view  of  the  Gaelic  movement  my  own 
thoughts  are  in  complete  accord.  It  is  undeniable  that 
the  pride  in  country  justly  felt  by  Englishmen,  a  pride 
developed  by  education  and  a  knowledge  of  their  history, 
has  had  much  to  do  with  the  industrial  pre-eminence  of 
England  ;  for  the  pioneers  of  its  commerce  have  been 
often  actuated  as  much  by  patriotic  motives  as  by  the 


154  THROUGH    THOUGHT    TO    ACTION. 

desire  for  gain.  The  education  of  the  Irish  people  has 
ignored  the  need  for  any  such  historical  basis  for  pride 
or  love  of  country,  and,  for  my  part,  I  feel  sure  that  the 
Gaelic  League  is  acting  wisely  in  seeking  to  arouse  such 
a  sentiment,  and  to  found  it  mainly  upon  the  ages  of 
Ireland's  story  when  Ireland  was  most  Irish. 

It  is  this  expansion  of  the  sentiment  of  nationality 
outside  the  domain  of  party  politics — the  distinction,  so 
to  speak,  between  nationality  and  nationalism — which 
is  the  chief  characteristic  of  the  Gaelic  movement. 
Nationality  had  come  to  have  no  meaning  other  than  a 
political  one,  any  broader  national  sentiment  having  had 
little  or  nothing  to  feed  upon.  During  the  last  century 
the  spirit  of  nationality  has  found  no  unworthy 
expression  in  literature,  in  the  writings  of  Ferguson, 
Standish  O'Grady  and  Yeats,  which,  however,  have 
not  been  even  remotely  comparable  in  popularity 
with  the  political  journalism  in  prose  and  rhyme 
in  which  the  age  has  been  so  fruitful.  It  has 
never  expressed  itself  in  the  arts,  and  not  only  has 
Ireland  no  representative  names  in  the  higher  regions  of 
art,  but  the  national  deficiency  has  been  felt  in  every 
department  of  industry  into  which  design  enters,  and 
where  national  art-characteristics  have  a  commercial 
value.  The  national  customs,  culture,  and  recreations 
which  made  the  country  a  pleasant  place  to  live  in, 
have  almost  disappeared,  and  with  them  one  of  the 
strongest  ties  which  bind  people  to  the  country  of  their 
birth.  The  Gaelic  revival,  as  I  understand  it,  is  an 


AN  APPEAL  TO  THE  INDIVIDUAL.          155 

attempt  to  supply  these  deficiencies,  to  give  to  Irish 
people  a  culture  of  their  own;  and  I  believe  that  by 
awakening  the  feelings  of  pride,  self-respect,  and  love  of 
country,  based  on  knowledge,  every  department  of  Irish 
life  will  be  invigorated. 

Thus  it  is  that  the  elevating  influence  upon  the  indivi- 
dual is  exerted.  Politics  have  never  awakened  initiative 
among  the  mass  of  the  people,  because  there  was  no  pro- 
gramme of  action  for  the  individual.  Perhaps  it  is  as  well 
for  Ireland  that  such  should  have  been  the  case,  for,  as 
it  has  been  shown,  we  have  had  little  of  the  political 
thought  which  should  be  at  the  back  of  political  action. 
Political  action  under  present  conditions  must  necessarily 
be  deputed  to  a  few  representatives,  and  after  the  vote  is 
given,  or  the  cheering1  at  a  meeting  has  ceased,  the  indi- 
vidual can  do  nothing  but  wait,  and  his  lethargy  tends  to 
become  still  deeper.  In  the  Gaelic  revival  there  is  a 
programme  of  work  for  the  individual ;  his  mind  is 
engaged,  thought  begets  energy,  and  this  energy  vitalises 
every  part  of  his  nature.  This  makes  for  the  strengthen- 
ing of  character,  and  so  far  from  any  harm  being  done  to 
the  practical  movement,  to  which  I  have  so  often  referred, 
the  testimony  of  my  fellow-workers,  as  well  as  my  own 
observation,  is  unanimous  in  affirming  that  the  influence 
of  the  branches  of  the  Gaelic  League  is  distinctly  useful 
whenever  it  is  sought  to  move  the  people  to  industrial  or 
commercial  activity. 

Many  of  my  political  friends  cannot  believe — and  I 
am  afraid  that  nothing  that  I  can  say  will  make  them 


1^6  THROUGH    THOUGHT   TO   ACTION. 

believe — that  the  movement  is  not  necessarily,  in  the 
political  sense,  separatist  in  its  sentiment.  This  impres- 
sion is,  in  my  opinion,  founded  on  a  complete  misunder- 
standing of  Anglo-Irish  history.  Those  who  look 
askance  at  the  rise  of  the  Gaelic  movement  ignore  the 
important  fact  that  there  has  never  been  any  essential 
opposition  between  the  English  connection  and  Irish 
nationality.  The  Elizabethan  chiefs  of  the  sixteenth 
and  the  Gaelic  poets  of  the  seventeenth  and  eighteenth 
centuries,  when  the  relations  between  the  two  countries 
were  far  worse  than  they  are  to-day,  knew  nothing  of 
this  opposition.  The  true  sentiment  of  nationality  is 
a  priceless  heritage  of  every  small  nation  which  has  done 
great  things,  and  had  it  not  largely  perished  in  Ireland, 
separatist  sentiment,  the  offspring,  not  of  Irish  nation- 
ality, but  of  Irish  political  nationalism,  could  hardly  have 
survived  until  to-day. 

But  undoubtedly  we  strike  here  on  a  danger  to  the 
Gaelic  movement,  so  far  at  least  as  that  movement  is 
bound  up  with  the  future  of  the  Gaelic  League  ;  a  danger 
which  cannot  be  left  out  of  account  in  any  estimate  of 
this  new  force  in  Irish  life.  The  continuance  of  the 
League  as  a  beneficent  force,  or  indeed  a  force  at  all, 
seems  to  me,  as  in  the  case  of  the  co-operative  organisa- 
tion to  which  I  have  compared  it,  to  be  vitally  dependent 
on  a  scrupulous  observance  of  that  part  of  its  constitution 
which  keeps  the  door  open  to  Irishmen  of  every  creed  or 
political  party.  Only  thus  can  the  League  remain  a 
truly  national  body,  and  attract  from  all  classes  Irishmen 


THE   GAELIC    REVIVAL    AND    POLITICS.  157 

who  are  capable  of  forwarding  its  true  policy.  I  do  not 
think  there  is  much  danger  of  a  spirit  of  sectarian 
exclusiveness  developing  itself  in  a  body  mainly  com- 
posed of  Roman  Catholics  whose  President  is  a  Pro- 
testant. But  it  cannot  be  denied  that  there  has  been 
an  occasional  tendency  to  interpret  the  '  no  politics ' 
clause  of  the  constitution  in  a  manner  which  seems 
hardly  fair  to  Unionists  or  even  to  constitutional  Home 
Rulers  who  may  have  joined  the  organisation  on  the 
strength  of  its  declaration  of  political  neutrality.  If  this 
is  not  a  mere  transitory  phenomenon  its  effect  will  be 
serious.  As  a  political  body  the  League  would  imme- 
diately sink  into  insignificance  and  probably  disappear 
amid  a  crowd  of  contending  factions.  It  would  certainly 
cease  to  fulfil  its  great  function  of  creating  a  nationality 
of  the  thought  and  spirit,  in  which  all  Irishmen  who  wish 
to  be  anything  else  than  English  colonists  might  aspire 
to  share.  Its  early  successes  in  bringing  together  men  of 
different  political  views  were  remarkable.  At  the  very 
outset  of  its  career  it  enlisted  the  support  of  so  militant 
a  politician  as  the  late  Rev.  R.  R.  Kane,  who  declared 
that  though  a  Unionist  and  an  Orangeman  he  had  no 
desire  to  forget  that  he  was  an  O'Cahan.  On  this  basis 
it  is  difficult  to  set  a  limit  to  the  fruitfulness  of  the  work 
which  this  organisation  might  do  for  Ireland,  and  I 
cannot  regard  any  who  would  depart  from  the  letter  and 
spirit  of  its  constitution  as  sincere,  or  if  sincere  as  wise, 
friends  of  the  movement  with  which  they  are  associated. 
Of  minor  importance  are  certain  extravagances  in  the 


158  THROUGH   THOUGHT  TO   ACTION. 

conduct  of  the  movement  which  time  and  practical 
experience  can  hardly  fail  to  correct.  I  have  borne 
witness  to  the  value  of  the  cultivation  of  the  language 
even  from  my  own  practical  standpoint,  but  I  cannot 
think  that  to  sign  cheques  in  Irish,  and  get  angry  when 
those  who  cannot  understand  will  not  honour  them,  is  a 
good  way  of  demonstrating  that  value.  I  should,  speak- 
ing generally,  regard  it  as  a  mistake,  supposing  it  were 
practicable,  to  substitute  Irish  for  English  in  the  conduct 
of  business.  If  any  large  development  of  the  trade  in 
pampooties,  turf  and  potheen  between  the  Aran  Islands 
and  the  mainland  were  in  contemplation,  this  attempt 
might  be  justified.  But  on  behalf  of  those  Philistines 
who  attach  paramount  importance  to  the  development  of 
Irish  industry,  trade  and  commerce  on  a  large  and  com- 
prehensive scale,  I  should  regret  a  course  which,  from  a 
business  point  of  view,  would  be  about  as  wise  as  the 
advocacy  of  distinctive  Irish  currency,  weights  and 
measures.  And  I  protest  more  strongly  against  the 
reasons  which  have  been  given  to  me  for  this  policy.  I 
have  been  told  that,  in  order  to  generate  sufficient  enthu- 
siasm, a  young  movement  of  the  kind  must  adopt  a 
rigorous  discipline  and  an  aggressive  policy.  Not  only 
are  we  thus  confronted  with  a  false  issue,  but  by  giving 
countenance  to  the  outward  acceptance  of  what  the  better 
sense  rejects,  these  over-zealous  leaguers  are  admin- 
istering to  the  Irish  character  the  very  poison  which  all 
Irish  movements  should  combine  to  eliminate  from  the 
national  life. 


THE    GAELIC   LEAGUE  AND    RURAL    LIFE.  159 

The  position  which  I  have  given  to  the  Gaelic  Revival 
among  the  new  influences  at  work  and  making  for  pro- 
gress in  Ireland  will  hardly  be  understood  by  those  who 
have  never  embraced  the  idea  of  combining  all  such  forces 
in  a  constructive  and  comprehensive  scheme  of  national 
advancement.     One  instance  of  the  potential  utility  of 
the  Gaelic  League  will  appeal  to  those  of  my  readers  who 
attach  as  much  importance  as  I  do  to  the  improvement 
of  the  peasant  home.     Concerted  action  to  this  end  is 
being  planned  while  I  write.     It  is  proposed  to  take  a 
few  districts  where  the  peasants  are  members  of  one  of 
the  new  co-operative  societies,  and  where  the  clergy  have 
taken  a  keen  interest  in  the  economic  and  social  advance- 
ment of  the  members    of   the    Society,  but  where  the 
cottages  are  in  the  normal  condition.     The  new  Depart- 
ment will  lend  the   services  of  its  domestic   economy 
teachers.     The  Organisation  Society,  the  clergy,  and  the 
Department  thus  working  together  will,  I  hope,  be  able 
to  get  the  people  of  the  selected  districts  to  effect  an 
improvement  in  their  domestic  surroundings  which  will 
act  as  an  invaluable  example  for  other  districts  to  follow. 
But  in  order  that  this  much  needed  contribution  to  the 
well-being  of  the  peasant  proprietary,  upon  which  all  our 
thoughts  are  just  now  concentrated,  may  be  assisted  with 
the  enthusiasm  which  belongs  in  Ireland  to  a  consciously 
national  effort,  it  is  hoped  that  common  action  with  the 
Gaelic  League  may  be  possible,  so  that  this  force  also 
may  be  enlisted  in  the  solution  of  this  part  of  our  central 
problem,  the  rehabilitation  of  rural  life  in  Ireland. 


l6o  THROUGH   THOUGHT   TO   ACTION. 

It  is,  however,  on  more  general  grounds  that  I  have, 
albeit  as  an  outside  observer,  watched  with  some  anxiety 
and  much  gratification  the  progress  of  the  Gaelic  Revival. 
In  the  historical  evolution  of  the  Irish  mind  we  find 
certain  qualities  atrophied,  so  to  speak,  by  disuse ;  and 
to  this  cause  I  attribute  the  past  failures  of  the  race  in 
practical  life  at  home.  I  have  shown  how  politics, 
religion,  and  our  systems  of  education  have  all,  in  their 
respective  influences  upon  the  people,  missed  to  a  large 
extent,  the  effect  upon  character  which  they  should  have 
made  it  their  paramount  duty  to  produce.  Nevertheless, 
whenever  the  intellect  of  the  people  is  appealed  to  by 
those  who  know  its  past,  a  recuperative  power  is 
manifested  which  shows  that  its  vitality  has  not  been 
irredeemably  impaired  It  is  because  I  believe  that,  on 
the  whole,  a  right  appeal  has  been  made  by  the  Gaelic 
League  that  I  have  borne  testimony  to  its  patriotic 
endeavours. 

The  question  of  the  Gaelic  Revival  seems  to  be  really 
a  form  of  the  eternal  question  of  the  interdependence  of 
the  practical  and  the  ideal  in  Ireland.  Their  true  relation 
to  each  other  is  one  of  the  hardest  lessons  the  student  of 
our  problems  has  to  learn.  I  recall  an  incident  in  the 
course  of  my  own  studies  which  I  will  here  recount,  as 
it  appears  to  me  to  furnish  an  admirable  illustration  of 
this  difficulty  as  it  presented  itself  to  a  very  interesting 
mind.  During  the  years  covering  the  rise  and  fall  of 
Parnell,  when  interest  in  the  Irish  Question  was  at  its 
zenith,  the  newspapers  of  the  United  States  kept  in 


HAROLD  FREDERIC'S  DIAGNOSIS.  161 

London  a  corps  of  very  able  correspondents,  who 
watched  and  reported  to  their  transatlantic  readers  every 
move  in  the  Home  Rule  campaign.  An  American 
public,  by  no  means  limited  to  the  American-Irish, 
devoured  every  morsel  of  this  intelligence  with  an 
avidity  which  could  not  have  been  surpassed  if  the  United 
States  had  been  engaged  in  a  war  with  Great  Britain. 
Among  these  correspondents  perhaps  the  most  brilliant 
was  the  late  Harold  Frederic.  Not  many  months  before 
he  died  I  received  a  letter  from  him,  in  which  he  said 
that,  although  we  were  unknown  to  each  other,  he 
thought,  from  some  public  utterances  of  mine,  that  we 
must  have  many  views  in  common.  He  had  often  in- 
tended to  get  an  introduction  to  me,  and  now  suggested 
that  we  should  '  waive  things  and  meet.'  We  met  and 
spent  an  evening  together,  which  left  some  deep  impres- 
sions on  my  mind.  He  told  me  that  the  Irish  Question 
possessed  for  him  a  fascination  for  which  he  could  give 
no  rational  explanation.  He  had  absolutely  no  tie  of 
blood  or  material  interest  with  Ireland,  and  his  friendship 
for  it  had  brought  him  the  only  quarrels  in  which  he  had 
ever  been  engaged. 

What  chiefly  interested  me  in  Harold  Frederic's 
philosophy  of  the  Irish  Question  was  that  he  had  arrived 
at  a  diagnosis  of  the  Irish  mind  not  substantially  different 
from  my  own.  Since  that  evening  I  have  come  across  a 
passage  in  one  of  his  novels,  which  clothes  in  delightful 
language  his  view  of  the  chaotic  psychology  of  the  Celt : 

There,  in  Ireland,  you  get  a  strange  mixture  of 
elementary  early  peoples,  walled  off  from  the  outer  world 

M 


l62  THROUGH   THOUGHT   TO   ACTION. 

by  the  four  seas,  and  free  to  work  out  their  own  racial 
amalgam  on  their  own  lines.  They  brought  with  them  at 
the  outset  a  great  inheritance  of  Eastern  mysticism. 
Others  lost  it,  but  the  Irish,  all  alone  on  their  island,  kept 
it  alive  and  brooded  on  it,  and  rooted  their  whole  spiritual 
side  in  it.  Their  religion  is  full  of  it  ;  their  blood  is  full 
of  it.  ...  The  Ireland  of  two  thousand  years  ago  is 
incarnated  in  her.  They  are  the  merriest  people  and  the 
saddest,  the  most  turbulent  and  the  most  docile,  the  most 
talented  and  the  most  unproductive,  the  most  practical 
and  the  most  visionary,  the  most  devout  and  the  most 
pagan.  These  impossible  contradictions  war  ceaselessly 
in  their  blood.* 

In  our  conversation  what  struck  me  most  was  the 
influence  which  politics  had  exercised  even  on  his 
philosophic  mind,  notwithstanding  a  low  estimate  of  our 
political  leaders.  In  one  of  a  series  of  three  notable 
articles  upon  the  Irish  Question,  which  appeared  anony- 
mously in  the  Fortnightly  Review t  in  the  winter  of 
1893-4,  and  of  which  he  told  me  he  was  the  writer,  he 
had  given  a  character  sketch  of  what  he  called  '  The 
Rhetoricians.'  Their  performances  since  the  Union  were 
summarised  in  the  phrase  '  a  century  of  unremitting 
gabble,'  and  he  regarded  it  as  a  sad  commentary  on  Irish 
life  that  such  brilliant  talents  so  largely  ran  to  waste  in 
destructive  criticism. 

I  naturally  turned  the  conversation  on  to  my  own  line 
of  thought,  and  discussed  the  practical  conclusions  to 

*  The  Damnation  of  Theron  Ware.  This  was  the  title  of  the 
book  I  read  in  the  United  States.  I  am  told  he  published  it  in  England 
under  the  title  of  Illuminations— a.  nice  discrimination  ! 

t  They  appeared  under  the  signature  of  '  X.'  in  Nov.  and  Dec., 
1893,  and  Jan.,  1894. 


THE  CELT'S  LACK  OF  INITIATIVE.  163 

which  his  studies  had  led  him.  I  tried  to  elicit  from  him 
exactly  what  he  had  in  his  mind  when,  in  one  of  the 
articles  to  which  I  have  referred,  he  advocated  '  a  recon- 
struction of  Ireland  on  distinctive  national  lines.'  I  hoped 
to  find  that  his  psychological  study  of  my  countrymen 
would  enable  him  to  throw  some  light  upon  the  means  by 
which  play  could  be  given  at  home  to  the  latent  capa- 
cities of  the  race.  I  found  that  he  was  in  entire  accord 
with  my  view,  that  the  chief  difficulty  in  the  way  of  con- 
structive statesmanship  was  the  defect  in  the  Irish 
character  about  which  I  have  said  so  much.  I  was  pre- 
pared for  that  conclusion,  for  I  had  already  seen  the  lack 
of  initiative  admirably  appreciated  in  the  following 
illuminating  sentence  of  his  : — '  The  Celt  will  help  some- 
one else  to  do  the  thing  that  other  has  in  mind,  and 
will  help  him  with  great  zeal  and  devotion ;  but  he  will 
not  start  to  do  the  thing  he  himself  has  thought  of.'*  But 
I  was  disappointed  when  he  bade  me  his  first  and  last 
good-bye  that  I  had  not  convinced  him  that  there  was 
any  way  out  of  the  Irish  difficulty  other  than  political 
changes,  for  which,  at  the  same  time,  he  appeared  to 
think  the  people  singularly  unfitted. 

The  fact  is  we  had  arrived  at  the  point  where  the 
student  of  Irish  life  usually  finds  himself  in  a  cul  de  sac. 
If  he  has  accurately  observed  the  conditions,  he  is  face 
to  face  with  a  problem  which  appears  to  be  in  its  nature 
insoluble.  For  at  every  turn  he  finds  things  being  done 
wrong  which  might  so  easily  be  done  right,  only  that 

*  Fortnightly  Revitw,  Jan.  1894,  PP-  lli  12. 


164  THROUGH    THOUGHT   TO   ACTION. 

nobody  is  concerned  that  they  should  be  done  right. 
And  what  is  worse,  when  he  has  learned,  in  the  course  of 
his  investigations,  to  discount  the  picturesque  explana- 
tion of  our  unsuccess  in  practical  life  which  in  Ireland 
veils  the  unpleasant  truth,  he  will  find  that  the  people 
are  quite  aware  of  their  defects,  although  they  attribute 
them  to  causes  beyond  their  power  to  remove.  Then, 
too,  the  sympathetic  inquirer  is  shocked  by  the  lack  of 
seriousness  in  it  all.  With  all  their  past  griefs  and  their 
high  aspirations,  the  Irish  people  seem  to  be  play-acting 
before  the  world.  The  inquirer  does  not,  perhaps,  reflect 
that,  if  play-acting  be  inconsistent  with  the  deepest  emo- 
tions, and  with  the  pursuit  of  high  ideals,  then  he  con- 
demns a  little  over  one  half  of  the  human  race.*  He 
probably  comes  to  the  main  conclusion  adopted  in  these 
pages,  and  realises  that  the  Irish  Question  is  a  problem 
of  character.  And  as  Irish  character  is  the  product  of 
Irish  history,  which  cannot  be  re-enacted,  he  leaves  the 
problem  there.  Harold  Frederic  left  it  there,  and  there 
it  has  been  taken  up  by  those  whose  endeavour  forms 
the  story  which  I  have  to  tell. 

I  now  come  to  the  principles  which,  it  appears  to  me, 
must  underlie  the  solution  of  this  problem.  The  narra- 

*  The  difficulties  of  the  writer  who  is  not  a  writer  are  great.  I  sent 
this  chapter  to  two  literary  friends,  one  of  whom,  with  the  help  of  a 
globe,  disputed  my  accuracy  in  a  learned  ethnological  disquisition  with 
which  he  favoured  me.  The  other  warned  me  to  be  even  more  obscure 
and  sent  me  the  following  verses,  addressed  by  'Cynicus'  (J.  K. 
Stephen)  to  Shakespeare, 

"  You  wrote  a  line  too  much,  my  sage, 

Of  seers  the  first,  the  first  of  sayers  ; 
For  only  half  the  world's  a  stage, 
And  only  all  the  women  players." 


THE    PATH   OF    PROGRESS.  165 

tive  contained  in  the  second  part  of  this  book  is  a 
record  of  the  efforts  made  during  the  last  decade  of  the 
nineteenth  and  the  first  two  years  of  the  twentieth 
century  by  a  small,  but  now  rapidly  augmenting 
group  of  Irishmen,  to  pluck  the  brand  of  Irish 
intellect  from  the  burning  of  the  Irish  Question. 
The  problem  before  us  was,  my  readers  will  now 
understand,  how  to  make  headway  in  view  of  the 
weakness  of  character  to  which  I  have  had  to  attribute 
the  paralysis  of  our  activities  in  the  past.  We  were  quite 
aware  that  our  progress  would  at  first  be  slow.  But  as 
we  were  satisfied  that  the  defects  of  character  which 
stood  in  the  way  of  economic  advancement  were  due  to 
causes  which  need  no  longer  be  operative,  and  that  the 
intellect  of  the  people  was  unimpaired,  we  faced  the 
problem  with  confidence. 

The  practical  form  which  our  work  took  was  the 
launching  upon  Irish  life  of  a  movement  of  organised 
self-Help,  and  the  subsequent  grafting  upon  this  move- 
ment of  a  system  of  State-aid  to  the  agriculture  and 
industries  of  the  country.  I  need  not  here  further  elabo- 
rate this  programme,  for  the  steps  by  which  it  has 
been  and  is  being  adopted  will  be  presently  described 
in  detail.  But  there  is  one  aspect  of  the  new  movement 
in  Ireland  which  must  be  understood  by  those  who  would 
grasp  the  true  significance  and  the  human  interest  of  an 
evolution  in  our  national  life,  the  only  recent  parallel  for 
which,  as  far  as  I  am  aware,  is  to  be  found  in  Japan : 
though  to  my  mind  the  conscious  attempt  of  the  Irish 


1 66  THROUGH    THOUGHT   TO   ACTION. 

people  to  develop  a  civilisation  of  their  own  is  far  more 
interesting  than  the  recent  efforts  of  the  Japanese  to 
westernise  their  institutions. 

The  problem  of  mind  and  character  with  which  we 
had  to  deal  in  Ireland  presented  this  central  and 
somewhat  discouraging  fact.  In  practical  life  the  Irish 
had  failed  where  the  English  had  succeeded,  and  this 
was  attributed  to  the  lack  of  certain  English  qualities 
which  have  been  undoubtedly  essential  to  success  in 
commerce  and  in  industry  from  the  days  of  the  indus- 
trial revolution  until  a  comparatively  recent  date.  It  was 
the  individualism  of  the  English  economic  system  dunng 
this  period  which  made  these  qualities  indispensable. 
The  lack  of  these  qualities  in  Irishmen  to-day  may  be 
admitted,  and  the  cause  of  the  deficiency  has  been 
adequately  explained.  But  those  who  regard  the  Irish 
situation  as  industrially  hopeless  probably  ignore  the  fact 
that  there  are  other  qualities,  of  great  and  growing 
importance  under  modern  economic  conditions,  which  can 
be  developed  in  Irishmen  and  may  form  the  basis  of  an 
industrial  system.  I  refer  to  the  range  of  qualities  which 
come  into  play  rather  in  association  than  in  the  indi- 
vidual, and  to  which  the  term  '  associative '  is  applied.* 

*  These  qualities,  as  will  be  explained  later,  happen  to  have  a 
special  economic  value  in  the  farming  industry,  and  so  are  available 
for  the  elevation  of  rural  life,  with  whose  problems  we  are  now  so 
deeply  concerned  in  Ireland.  Their  applicability  to  urban  life  need 
not  be  discussed  here.  But  my  study  of  the  co-operative  movement  in 
England  has  convinced  me  that,  if  the  English  had  the  associative 
instincts  of  the  Irish,  that  movement  would  play  a  part  in  English 
life  more  commensurate  with  its  numerical  strength  and  the  volume 
of  its  commercial  transactions,  than  can  be  claimed  for  it  so  far. 


THE    ASSOCIATIVE    QUALITIES.  167 

So  that  although   much  disparaging  criticism   of   Irish 
character  is  based  upon  the  survival  in  the  Celt  of  the 
tribal  instincts,  it  is  gratifying  to  be  able  to  show  that 
even  from  the  practical  English  point  of  view,  our  pre- 
ference for  thinking  and  working  in  groups  may  not  be 
altogether  a  damnosa  hereditas.     If,  owing  to  our  defi- 
ciency in  the  individualistic  qualities  of  the  English,  we 
cannot  at  this  stage  hope  to  produce  many  types  of  the 
'  economic  man '  of  the  economists,  we  think  we  see  our 
way  to  provide,  as  a  substitute,  the  economic  association. 
If  the  association  succeeds,  and  by  virtue  of  its  financial 
success    becomes    permanent,     a    great    change    will, 
in    our    opinion,    be    produced    on    the    character     of 
its  members.      The   reflex   action   upon   the   individual 
mind  of  the  habit  of  doing,  in  association  with  others, 
things  which  were  formerly  left  undone,  or  badly  done, 
may  be  relied  upon  to  have  a  tonic  effect  upon  the 
character  of  the  individual.    This  is,  I  suppose,  the  secret 
of     discipline,     which,    though    apparently    eliminating 
volition,  seems  in  weak  characters  to  strengthen  the  will. 
There  is,  too,  as  we  have  learned,  in  the  association  a 
strange  influence  which  develops  qualities  and  capacities 
that  one  would  not    expect    on    a   mere    consideration 
of  the  character  of  its  members.       This  psychological 
phenomenon  has  been  admirably  and  most  entertainingly 
discussed  by  the  French  psychologist,  Le  Bon,*  who,  in 
the  attractive  pursuit   of   paradox,   almost  goes   to    the 
length  of  the  proposition  that  the  association  inherently 

*  La  Psychologie  de  la  Foule. 


l68  THROUGH   THOUGHT  TO   ACTION. 

possesses  qualities  the  opposite  of  those  possessed  by  its 
members.  My  own  experience — and  I  have  had  oppor- 
tunities of  observing  hundreds  of  associations  formed  by 
my  friends  upon  the  principles  above  laid  down — does 
not  carry  me  quite  so  far.  But,  unquestionably,  the  asso- 
ciation in  Ireland  does  often  become  an  entity  as  distinct 
from  the  individualities  of  which  it  is  composed,  as  is  a 
new  chemical  compound  from  its  constituent  elements. 

Associations  of  the  kind  we  had  in  our  minds,  which 
were  to  be  primarily  for  purely  business  purposes,  were 
bound  to  have  many  collateral  effects.  They  would 
open  up  outside  of  politics  and  religion,  but  not  in 
conflict  with  either,  a  sphere  of  action  where  an  inde- 
pendence new  to  the  country  would  have  to  be  exercised. 
In  Ireland  public  opinion  is  under  an  obsession  which, 
whether  political,  religious,  historical,  or  all  three  com- 
bined, is  probably  unique  among  civilised  peoples.  Until 
the  last  few  years,  for  example,  it  was  our  habit — one 
which  immensely  weakened  the  influence  of  Ireland  in 
the  Imperial  Parliament — to  form  extravagant  estimates 
of  men,  exalting  and  abasing  them  with  irrational  caprice, 
not  according  to  their  qualities  so  much  as  by  their 
attitude  towards  the  passion  of  the  hour.  The  ups  and 
downs  of  the  reputations  of  Lord  Spencer  and  Mr.  Arthur 
Balfour  in  Ireland  are  a  sufficient  illustration  of  our  dis- 
regard of  the  old  Latin  proverb  which  tells  us  that  no  man 
ever  became  suddenly  altogether  bad.  Even  now  public 
opinion  is  too  prone  to  attach  excessive  value  to  projects 
of  vague  and  visionary  development,  and  to  underrate 


DEEDS    NOT    WORDS.  169 

the  importance  of  serious  thought  and  quiet  work,  which 
can  be  the  only  solid  foundation  of  our  national  progress. 
In  these  new  associations — humble  indeed  in  their  origin, 
but  destined  to  play  a  large  part  in  the  people's  lives — 
projects,  professing  to  be  fraught  with  economic  benefit, 
have  to  be  judged  by  the  cruel  precision  of  audited 
balance  sheets,  and  the  worth  of  men  is  measured  by  the 
solid  contribution  they  have  made  to  the  welfare  of  the 
community. 

I  have  now  accomplished  one  long  stage  of  my  journey 
towards  the  conclusion  of  this  discussion  of  the  needs  of 
modern  Ireland.  Were  I  to  stop  here,  probably  most  of 
those  who  had  been  induced  to  open  yet  another  book 
upon  the  Irish  Question  would  accuse  me,  and  not  with- 
out justice,  of  being  responsible  for  a  barren  graft  upon 
a  barren  controversy.  I  fear  no  such  criticism,  whatever 
other  shortcomings  may  be  detected,  from  those  who 
have  the  patience  to  read  on.  For  when  I  pass  from  my 
own  reflections  to  record  the  work  to  which  many 
thousands  of  my  countrymen  have  addressed  themselves 
in  building  up  the  Ireland  of  the  twentieth  century,  I 
shall  have  a  story  to  tell  which  must  inspire  hope  in  all 
who  can  be  persuaded  that  Ireland  in  the  past  has  not 
often  been  treated  fairly  and  has  never  been  understood. 
I  have  shown — and  it  was  necessary  to  show,  if  a  repeti- 
tion of  misunderstanding  was  to  be  avoided — that  the 
Irish  people  themselves  are  gravely  responsible  for  the 
ills  of  their  country,  and  that  the  forces  which  have 


170  THROUGH    THOUGHT    TO   ACTION. 

mainly  governed  their  action  hitherto  are  rapidly  bring- 
ing about  their  disappearance  as  a  distinct  nationality. 
But  I  shall  now  have  to  tell  of  the  widespread  and  grow- 
ing adoption,  of  certain  new  principles  of  action  which  I 
believe  to  be  consonant  with  the  genius  and  traditions  of 
the  race,  and  the  acceptance  of  which  seems  to  me 
vitally  necessary  if  the  Irish  people  are  to  play  a  worthy 
part  in  the  future  history  of  the  world  That  part  is  a 
far  greater  one  than  they  could  ever  hope  to  play  as  an 
independent  and  separate  State,  yet  their  success  in  play- 
ing it  must  closely  depend  upon  their  remaining  a  distinct 
nationality,  in  the  sense  so  clearly  and  wisely  indicated 
by  his  Majesty  when,  in  his  reply  to  the  address  of  the 
Belfast  Corporation,  he  spoke  of  the  '  national  charac- 
teristics and  ideals '  which  he  desired  his  kingdoms  to 
cherish  in  the  midst  of  their  imperial  unity.*  The  great 
experiment  which  I  am  about  to  relate  is,  in  its  own  pro- 
vince, one  of  the  many  applications  which  we  see  around 
us  of  the  conception  here  put  forward.  And  I  believe 
that  a  few  more  years  of  quiet  work  by  those  who  are 
taking  part  in  this  movement,  witH  its  appeal  to  Irish 

*  July  27th,  1903, — His  Majesty  thus  confirmed  the  striking 
utterance  of  imperial  policy  contained  in  Lord  Dudley's  speech  to  the 
Incorporated  Law  Society,  on  the  2oth  of  November,  1902.  His 
Excellency,  after  protesting  against  the  conception  of  empire  as  a  '  huge 
regiment '  in  which  each  nation  was  to  lose  its  individuality,  said — 
"  Lasting  strength,  lasting  loyalty,  are  not  to  be  secured  by  any  attempt 
to  force  into  one  system  or  to  remould  into  one  type  those  special 
characteristics  which  are  the  outcome  of  a  nation's  history  and  of  her 
religious  and  social  conditions,  but  rather  by  a  full  recognition  of  the 
fact  that  these  very  characteristics  form  an  essential  part  of  a  nation's 
life ;  and  that  under  wise  guidance  and  under  sympathetic  treatment 
they  will  enable  her  to  provide  her  own  contribution  and  to  play  her 
own  special  part  in  the  life  of  the  empire  to  which  she  belongs." 


CO-OPERATION  AND  CHARACTER.  I/I 

intellect,  and  its  reliance  upon  Irish  patriotism,  is 
all  that  is  needed  to  prove  that  by  developing  the 
industrial  qualities  of  the  Celt  on  associative  lines  we  can 
in  politics  as  well  as  in  economics,  add  strength  to  the 
Irish  character  without  making  it  less  Irish  or  less 
attractive  than  of  old. 


PART  II. 
PRACTICAL. 


"  For  a  country  so  attractive  and  a  people  so  gifted  we  cherish  the 
warmest  regard,  and  it  is,  therefore,  with  supreme  satisfaction  that  I 
have  during  our  stay  so  often  heard  the  hope  expressed  that  a  brighter 
day  is  dawning  upon  Ireland.  I  shall  eagerly  await  the  fulfilment  of 
this  hope.  Its  realisation  will,  under  Divine  Providence,  depend 
largely  upon  the  steady  development  of  self-reliance  and  co-operation, 
upon  better  and  more  practical  education,  upon  the  growth  of  indus- 
trial and  commercial  enterprise,  and  upon  that  increase  of  mutual  tolera- 
tion and  respect  which  the  responsibility  my  Irish  people  now  enjoy 
in  the  public  administration  of  their  local  affairs  is  well-fitted  to 
teach." — Message  of  the  King  to  the  Irish  People,  ist  August,  1903. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

THE   NEW   MOVEMENT:   ITS   FOUNDATION   ON 
SELF-HELP. 

The  movement  for  the  reorganisation  of  Irish  agri- 
cultural and  industrial  life,  to  which  I  have  already 
frequently  referred,  must  now  be  described  in  prac- 
tical operation.  Before  I  do  this,  however,  there  are 
two  lines  of  criticism  which  the  very  mention  of  a  new 
movement  may  suggest,  and  which  I  must  anticipate. 
Every  year  has  its  tale  of  new  movements,  launched 
by  estimable  persons  whose  philanthropic  zeal  is  not 
balanced  by  the  judgment  required  to  discriminate  be- 
tween schemes  which  possess  the  elements  of  perman- 
ence, and  those  which  depend  upon  the  enthusiasm  or 
financial  support  of  their  promoters,  and  are  in  their 
nature  ephemeral.  There  is,  consequently,  a  widespread 
and  well  justified  mistrust  of  novel  schemes  for  the  indus- 
trial regeneration  of  Ireland.  I  confess  to  having  had 
my  ingenuity  severely  taxed  on  some  occasions  to 
find  a  sympathetic  circumlocution  wherewith  to  show 
cause  for  declining  to  join  a  new  movement,  my  real 
reason  being  an  inward  conviction  that  nothing  except 
resolutions  would  be  moved.  In  the  complex  problem 
of  building  up  the  economic  and  social  life  of  a  people 


176  THE   NEW   MOVEMENT   AND   SELF-HELP. 

with  such  a  history  as  ours,  we  must  resist  the  temptation 
to  multiply  schemes  which,  however  well  intended,  are 
but  devices  for  enabling  individuals    to    devolve    their 
responsibilities    upon    the    community    or    upon    the 
Government,  and  which  owe  their  bubble  reputation  and 
brief  popularity  to  this  unconscious  humouring  of  our 
chief  national  defect.     On  the  contrary,  we  must  seek  to 
instil  into  the  mind  of  each  individual  the  too  little 
recognised  importance  of  his  own  contribution    to    the 
sum  of  national  achievement.     The  building  of  character 
must  be  our  paramount  object,  as  it  is  the  condition  pre- 
cedent of  all  social  and  economic  reform  in  Ireland.     To 
explain  the  principles  by  the  observance  of  which  the 
agency  of  the  association  may  be  utilised  as  an  economic 
force,  while  at  the  same  time  the  industrial  character  of 
the  individual  may  be  developed,  was  one  of  the  chief 
aims  I  had  in  view  in  the  foregoing  analysis  of  the  Irish 
mind  and  character,  as  they  have  emerged  from  history 
and  are  stunted  in  their  growth  by    present  influences. 
The  facts  about  to  be  recited  will,  I  hope,  suffice  to  prove 
that  the  reformer  in  Ireland,  if  he  has  a  true  insight  into 
the  great  human  problem  with  which  he  is  dealing,  may 
find  in  the  association  not  only  a  healthy  stimulus  to 
national  activities,  but  also  a  meansi  whereby  the  assist- 
ance of  the  State  may  be  so  invoked  and  applied  that  it 
will  concentrate,  and  not  dissipate,  the  energies  of  the 
people. 

The  other  criticism  which  I  think  it  necessary  to  anti- 
cipate would,  if  ignored,  leave  room  for  a  wrong  impres- 


EDUCATION  FOR  ADULTS.  177 

sion  as  to  much  of  the  work  which  is  being  done  both 
on  the  self-help  and  on  the  State-aid  sides  of  the  new 
movement.     Education,  it  will  be  said,  is  the  only  real 
solvent  to  the  range  of  problems  discussed  in  this  book, 
most  other  agencies  of  social  and  economic  reform  being 
of    doubtful    efficacy    and,    if   they    tend   to    postpone 
educational  effort,  positively  harmful.     There   is    much 
truth    in    this    view.       But    it    must    be    remembered 
that  the  backward  condition  of  our  economic  life  is  due 
mainly  to  the  fact  that  our  educational  systems  have  had 
little  regard  to  our  history  or  economic  circumstances. 
We  'must,  therefore,  at  this  stage  in  our  national  develop- 
ment give  to  education  a  much  wider  interpretation  than 
that  which  is  usually  applied  to  the  term.     We  cannot 
wait  for  a  generation  to  grow  up  which  has  been  given  an 
education  calculated  to  fit  it  for  the  modern  economic 
struggle,  even  if  there  were  any  probability  that  the 
necessary  reforms  would  soon  be  carried  against  the  pre- 
judices which  are  aroused  by  any  proposal  to  train  the 
minds,  or  even  the  hands  and  eyes,  of  the  rising  genera- 
tion. In  the  meantime  much  of  the  work,  both  voluntary 
and  State-aided,  now  initiated  in  Ireland,  must  consist  of 
educating  adults  to  introduce  into  their  business  con- 
cerns the  more  advanced  economic  and  scientific  methods 
which  the  superior  education  of  our  rivals  in  agriculture 
and  industry  abroad  has  enabled  them  to  adopt,  and 
which  my  experience  of  Irish  work  convinces  me  our 
people  would  have  adopted  long  ago  if  they  had  had 
similar  educational  advantages.     And  I  would  further 


THE    NEW    MOVEMENT   AND    SELF-HELP. 

point  out  that  there  is  no  better  way  of  promoting  the 
reform  of  education  in  the  ordinary,  the  pedagogic,  sense, 
than  by  bringing  to  bear  upon  the  minds  of  parents 
those  educational  influences  which  are  calculated  to  con- 
vince them  of  the  advantage  of  improved  practical 
education  for  their  children.  So  to  the  economist  and 
to  the  educationist  alike  I  would  submit  that  the  new 
work  of  economic  and  social  reform  should  be  judged  as 
a  whole,  and  not  prejudged  by  that  hypercriticism  of 
details  which  ignores  the  fact  that  the  conditions  with 
which  it  is  attempted  to  deal  are  wholly  unprecedented 
I  am  quite  content  that  the  movement  which  I  am  about 
to  describe  should  be  ultimately  known  and  judged  by  its 
fruits.  Meanwhile,  I  think  that  to  the  intelligent  critic  it 
will  sufficiently  justify  its  existence  if  it  continues  to 
exist. 

The  story  of  the  new  movement,  which  must  now  be 
told,  begins  in  the  year  1889,  when  a  few  Irishmen,  the 
writer  of  these  pages  among  them,  set  themselves  the 
task  of  bringing  home  to  the  rural  population  of  Ireland 
the  fact  that  their  prosperity  was  in  their  own  hands 
much  more  than  they  were  generally  led  to  believe. 
I  have  already  pointed  out  that  in  order  to  direct  the 
Irish  mind  towards^  practical  affairs  and  in  order  effec- 
tively to  arouse  and  apply  the  latent  capacities  of  the 
Irish  people  to  their  chief  industry,  agriculture,  we  must 
rely  upon  associative,  as  distinct  from  individual  effort ; 
or,  in  other  words,  we  must  get  the  people  to  do  their 


FAVOURING  CONDITIONS. 

business  together  rather  than  separately  as  the  English 
do.  Fortunately  for  us,  it  happened  that  this  course, 
which  was  clearly  indicated  by  the  character  and  tem- 
perament of  the  people,  was  equally  prescribed  by 
economic  considerations.  The  population  and  wealth  of 
Ireland  are,  I  need  hardly  say,  so  predominantly  agricul- 
tural that  the  welfare  of  the  country  must  depend  upon 
the  welfare  of  the  farming  classes.  It  is  notorious  that 
the  industry  by  which  these  classes  live  has  for  the  last 
quarter  of  a  century  become  less  and  less  profitable.  It 
is  also  recognised  that  the  prime  cause  of  agricultural 
depression,  foreign  competition,  is  not  likely  to  be  re- 
moved, while  that  from  the  colonies  is  likely  to  increase. 
The  extraordinary  development  of  rapid  and  cheap  tran- 
sit, together  with  recently  invented  processes  of  preserva- 
tion, have  enabled  the  more  favoured  producers  in  the 
newly  developed  countries  of  both  hemispheres  success- 
fully to  enter  into  competition  in  the  British  markets  with 
the  farmers  of  these  islands.  The  agricultural  producers 
in  other  European  countries,  although  to  some  extent 
protected  by  tariffs,  have  had  to  face  similar  conditions ; 
but  in  most  of  these  countries,  though  not  in  the 
United  Kingdom,  the  farmers  have  so  changed  their 
methods,  to  meet  the  altered  circumstances,  that  they 
seem  to  have  gained  by  improvement  at  home  as 
much  as  they  have  lost  by  competition  from  abroad. 
Thus  our  farmers  find  themselves  harassed  first  by  the 
cheaper  production  from  vast  tracts  of  virgin  soil  in  the 
uttermost  parts  of  the  earth,  and  secondly  by  a  nearer 


THE    NEW    MOVEMENT    AND    SELF-HELP. 

and  keener  competition  from  the  better  organised  and 
better  educated  producers  of  the  Continent. 

While  the  opening  up  of  what  the  economists  call 
the  '  world  market,'  has  necessitated,  as  a  condition  of 
successful  competition,  improved  methods  of  produc- 
tion for,  and  carriage  to,  the  market,  a  third  and  less 
obvious  force  has  effected  an  important  change  in 
the  method  of  distribution  in  the  market.  The  swarming 
populations,  which  the  factory  system  has  brought  to- 
gether in  industrial  centres,  have  to  be  supplied  with 
food  by  a  system  of  distribution  which  must  above  all 
things  be  expeditious.  This  requirement  can  only  be 
met  by  the  regular  consignment  of  food  in  large  quanti- 
ties, of  such  uniform  quality  that  the  sample  can  be 
relied  upon  to  be  truly  indicative  of  the  quality  of  the 
bulk.  Thus  the  rapid  distribution  of  produce  in  the 
markets  becomes  as  important  a  factor  in  agricultural 
economy  as  improved  methods  of  production  or  cheap 
and  expeditious  carriage. 

Now  this  new  market  condition  is  being  met  in  two 
ways.  In  the  United  States,  and,  in  a  less  marked 
degree,  at  home,  an  army  of  middlemen  between 
the  producer  and  the  consumer  attends  to  this  business 
for  a  share  of  the  profits  accruing  from  it,  whilst 
in  many  parts  of  the  Continent  the  farmers  them- 
selves attend,  partially  at  any  rate,  to  the  business  side 
of  their  industry  instead  of  paying  others  to  do  it  all  for 
them.  I  say  all,  for  middlemen  are  necessary  at  the 
distributive  end:  but  it  is  absolutely  essential,  in  a 


LESSON'S    FROM    THE    CONTINENT.  l8l 

country  like  Ireland,  that  at  the  producing  end  the 
farmers  should  be  so  organised  that  they  themselves 
can  manage  the  first  stages  of  distribution,  and  exercise 
some  control  over  the  middlemen  who  do  the  rest  The 
foreign  agricultural  producers  have  long  been  alive  to 
this  necessity,  for  their  superior  education  enabled  them 
to  grasp  the  economic  situation  and  even  to  realise  that 
the  matter  is  not  one  of  acute  political  controversy. 

Here,  then,  was  a  definite  practical  problem  to  the 
solution  of  which  the  promoters  of  the  new  movement 
could  apply  their  principle  of  co-operative  effort.  The 
more  we  studied  the  question  the  more  apparent  it 
became  that  the  enormous  advantage  which  the  Con- 
tinental farmers  had  over  the  Irish  farmers,  both  in 
production  and  in  distribution,,  was  due  to  superior 
organisation  combined  with  better  education.  State-aid 
had  no  doubt  done  a  great  deal  abroad,  but  in  every  case 
it  was  manifest  that  it  had  been  preceded,  or  at  least 
accompanied,  by  the  organised  voluntary  effort  without 
which  the  interference  of  the  Government  with  the 
business  of  the  people  is  simply  demoralising. 

Generally  speaking,  the  task  before  us  in  Ireland  was 
the  adaptation  to  the  special  circumstances  of  our  country 
of  methods  successfully  pursued  by  communities  similarly 
situated  in  foreign  countries.  We  had  to  urge  upon 
farmers  that  combination  was  just  as  necessary  to  their 
economic  salvation  as  it  was  recognised  to  be  by  their 
own  class,  and  by  those  engaged  in  other  industries, 
elsewhere.  They  must  combine,  so  we  urged  on  them, 


l82  THE    NEW    MOVEMENT   AND    SELF-HELP. 

for  example,  to  buy  their  agricultural  requirements  at  the 
cheapest  rate  and  of  the  best  quality  in  order  to  produce 
more  efficiently  and  more  economically ;  they  must  com- 
bine to  avail  themselves  of  improved  appliances  beyond 
the  reach  of  individual  producers,  whether  it  be  by  the 
erection  of  creameries,  for  which  there  was  urgent  need, 
or  of  cheese  factories  and  jam  factories  which  might 
come  later ;  or  in  ordinary  farm  operations,  to  secure  the 
use  of  the  latest  agricultural  machinery  and  the  most 
suitable  pure-bred  stock ;  they  must  combine — not  to 
abolish  middle  profits  in  distribution,  whether  those  of 
the  carrying  companies  or  those  of  the  dealers  in  agricul- 
tural produce — but  to  keep  those  profits  within  reasonable 
limits,  and  to  collect  in  bulk  and  regularise  consignments 
so  that  they  could  be  carried  and  marketed  at  a  moderate 
cost ;  they  must  combine,  as  we  afterwards  learned,  for  the 
purpose  of  creating,  by  mutual  support,  the  credit  required 
to  bring  in  the  fresh  working  capital  which  each  new 
development  of  their  industry  would  demand  and  justify. 
In  short,  whenever  and  wherever  the  individuals  in  a 
farming  community  could  be  brought  to  see  that  they 
might  advantageously  substitute  associated  for  isolated 
production  or  distribution,  they  must  be  taught  to  form 
themselves  into  associations  in  order  to  reap  the  anti- 
cipated advantages. 

This  brief  statement  of  our  general  aims  will  furnish  a 
rough  idea  of  the  economic  propaganda  which  we  initiated, 
and  if  I  give  a  few  illustrations  of  the  practical  applica- 
tion of  the  new  principle  to  the  farming  industry,  I 


INDUSTRIAL    ORGANISATION.  183 

shall  have  done  all  that  will  be  required  to  leave  on  the 
reader's  mind  a  true  though  perhaps  an  incomplete 
impression  of  the  character  and  scope  of  the  self-help 
side  of  the  new  movement.  I  shall  first  give  a  sketch 
of  the  unrecorded  struggles  of  its  pioneers,  because 
these  struggles  prove  to  those  engaged  in  social  and 
economic  work  in  Ireland  that,  in  the  wholly  abnormal 
condition  of  our  national  life,  no  project  which  is 
theoretically  sound  need  be  rejected  because  everybody 
says  it  is  impracticable.  The  work  of  the  morrow  will 
largely  consist  of  the  impossible  of  to-day.  If  this  adds 
to  the  difficulty,  it  also  adds  to  the  fun. 

When  we  arrived  at  the  conclusion  that  the 
introduction  of  the  principle  of  agricultural  co-operation 
was  a  vital  necessity,  the  first  practical  question  which 
had  to  be  decided  was  how  the  industrial  army,  which  was 
to  do  battle  for  Ireland's  position  in  the  world  market, 
should  be  organised  and  disciplined  for  the  task.  It  is 
evident  that  before  a  body  of  men  who  have  never 
worked  together  can  form  a  successful  commercial  com- 
bination, they  must  be  provided  with  a  constitution  and 
set  of  rules  and  regulations  for  the  conduct  of  theii 
business.  These  must  be  so  skilfully  contrived 
that  they  will  harmonise  all  the  interests  in- 
volved. And  when  an  arrangement  has  been  come 
to  which  is,  not  only  in  fact  but  also  obviously, 
equitable,  it  remains  as  part  of  the  process  of  organ- 
isation to  teach  the  participants  in  the  new  project 
the  meaning,  and  to  imbue  them  with  the  spirit,  of  the 


184  THE    NEW    MOVEMENT    AND    SELF-HELP. 

joint  enterprise  into  which  they  have  been  persuaded  to 
enter  with  perhaps  no  very  clear  understanding  of  all 
that  is  involved.  There  were  in  Ireland  no  precedents 
to  guide  us  and  no  examples  to  follow,  but  the  co- 
operative movement  in  England  appeared  to  furnish  most 
of  the  principles  involved  and  a  perfect  machinery  for 
their  application.*  So  Lord  Monteagle  and  Mr.  R.  A. 
Anderson,  my  first  two  associates  in  the  New  Movement, 
joined  me  as  regular  attendants  at  the  annual  Co-operative 
congi  esses.  We  were  assiduous  seekers  after  informa- 
tion at  the  head-quarters  of  the  Co-operative  Union  in 
Manchester.  We  had  the  good  fortune  to  fall  in  with 
Vansittart  Neale,  and  Tom  Hughes,  both  of  whom  have 
passed  away,  and  with  Mr.  Holyoake,  who,  with  the 
exception  of  Mr.  Ludlow,  is  now  the  sole  survivor  of  that 
noble  group  of  practical  philanthropists,  the  Christian 
Socialists.  Mr.  J.  C.  Gray,  who  succeeded  Mr.  Vansittart 
Neale  as  the  General  Secretary  of  the  Co-operative 
Union,  gave  us  invaluable  help  and  continues  to  do  so 
to  this  day.  The  leaders  of  the  English  movement 

*  The  story  of  the  conversion  of  some  of  the  tenants  on  the 
Vandeleur  estate  into  a  co-operative  community  in  1831  by  Mr.  E.  T. 
Craig,  a  Scotchman  who  took  up  the  agency  of  the  property,  told  in 
the  History  of  Ralahine  (London,  Triibner  &  Co.,  1893)  is  worth 
reading.  The  experiment,  most  hopeful  as  far  as  it  went,  was  only  two 
years  in  existence  when  the  landlord  gambled  away  his  property  at 
cards  in  a  Dublin  club  and  the  Utopia  was  sold  up.  But  in  the 
co  operative  world  Mr.  Craig,  who  died  as  recently  as  1894,  *s  revered 
as  the  author  of  the  most  advanced  experiment  in  the  realisation  of 
co-operative  ideals.  The  economic  significance  of  the  narrative  is 
obviously  not  important,  and  I  doubt  whether  joint  ownership  of  land, 
except  for  the  purpose  of  common  grazing,  is  a  practical  ideal.  The 
ready  response,  however,  of  the  Irish  peasants  to  Mr.  Craig's  enthusiasm 
and  the  way  in  which  they  took  up  the  idea  form  an  interesting  study 
of  the  Irish  character. 


DOUBTS    AND    DIFFICULTIES.  185 

sympathised  with  our  efforts.  The  Union  paid  us  the 
compliment  of  constituting  our  first  converts  its  Irish 
Section.  Liberal  support  was  given  out  of  the  central 
English  funds  towards  the  cost  of  the  missionary  work 
which  was  to  spread  co-operative  light  in  the  sister 
isle.  We  can  never  forget  the  generosity  of  the 
workingmen  in  England  in  giving  their  aid  to  the  Irish 
farmers,  especially  when  it  is  remembered  that  they  had 
no  sanguine  anticipations  for  the  success  of  our  efforts  and 
no  prospect  of  advantages  to  themselves  if  we  did  succeed. 
It  must  be  admitted  that  the  outlook  was  not  alto- 
gether rosy.  Agricultural  co-operation  had  never  suc- 
ceeded in  England,  where  it  seemed  to  be  accepted 
as  one  of  the  disappointing  limitations  of  the  co-operative 
movement  that  it  did  not  apply  to  rural  communities  in 
these  islands.  There  were  also  in  Ireland  the  peculiar 
difficulties  arising  from  ceaseless  political  and  agrarian 
agitation.  It  was  naturally  asked — did  Irish  farmers 
possess  the  qualities  out  of  which  co-operators  are  made  ? 
Had  they  commercial  experience  or  business  education  ? 
Had  they  business  capacity?  Would  they  display  that 
confidence  in  each  other  which  is  essential  to  successful 
association,  or  indeed  that  confidence  in  themselves 
without  which  there  can  be  no  business  enterprise  ?  Could 
they  ever  be  induced  to  form  themselves  into  societies, 
and  to  adopt,  and  loyally  adhere  to  those  rules  and 
regulations  by  which  alone  equitable  distribution  of  the 
responsibility  and  profit  among  the  participants  in  the 
joint  undertaking  can  be  assured,  and  harmony  and 


l86  THE    NEW    MOVEMENT   AND    SELF-HELP. 

successful  working  be  rendered  possible?  Then,  our 
best-informed  Irish  critics  assured  us  that  voluntary 
association  for  humdrum  business  purposes,  devoid  of 
some  religious  or  political  incentive,  was  alien  to  the 
Celtic  temperament  and  that  we  should  wear  ourselves 
out  crying  in  the  wilderness.  We  were  told  that  Irishmen 
can  conspire  but  cannot  combine.  Economists  assured  us 
that  even  if  we  succeeded  in  getting  farmers  to  embark 
on  the  projected  enterprises,  financial  disaster  would  be 
the  inevitable  result  of  our  attempts  to  substitute  in 
industrial  undertakings,  ever  becoming  more  technical 
and  requiring  more  and  more  commercial  knowledge  and 
experience,  democratic  management  for  one-man  control. 
On  the  other  hand  there  were  some  favouring  condi- 
tions, the  importance  of  which  our  studies  of  the  human 
problems  already  discussed  will  have  made  my  readers 
realise.  Isolated,  the  Irish  farmer  is  conservative, 
sceptical  of  innovations,  a  believer  in  routine  and  tradi- 
tion. In  union  with  his  fellows,  he  is  progressive,  open 
to  ideas,  and  wonderfully  keen  at  grasping  the  essential 
features  of  any  new  proposal  for  his  advancement.  He 
was,  then,  himself  eminently  a  subject  for  co-operative 
treatment,  and  his  circumstances  were  equally  so.  The 
smallness  of  his  holding,  the  lack  of  capital,  and  the 
backwardness  of  his  methods  made  him  helpless  in  com- 
petition with  his  rivals  abroad.  The  process  of  organ- 
isation was  also,  to  some  extent,  facilitated  by  the  insight 
the  people  had  been  given  by  the  Land  League  into  the 
power  of  combination,  and  by  the  education  they  had 


THE   RISE  OF  CO-OPERATIVE   CREAMERIES.  187 

received  in  the  conduct  of  meetings.  It  was  a  great 
advantage  that  there  was  a  machinery  ready  at  hand 
for  getting  people  together,  and  a  procedure  fully  under- 
stood for  giving  expression  to  the  sense  of  the  meeting. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  domination  of  a  powerful  central 
body,  which  was  held  to  be  essential  to  the  success  of 
the  political  and  agrarian  movement,  had  exercised  an 
influence  which  added  enormously  to  the  difficulty  of 
getting  the  people  to  act  on  their  own  initiative. 

Though  the  economic  conditions  of  the  Irish  farmer 
clearly  indicated  a  need  for  the  application  of  co-operative 
effort  to  all  branches  of  his  industry,  it  was  necessary  at 
the  beginning  to  embrace  a  more  limited  aim.  It  hap- 
pened at  the  time  we  commenced  our  Irish  work  that 
one  branch  of  farming,  the  dairying  industry,  pre- 
sented features  admirably  adapted  to  our  methods. 
This  industry  was,  so  to  speak,  ripe  for  its  in- 
dustrial development,  for  its  change  from  a  home  to  a 
factory  industry.  New  machinery,  costly  but  highly 
efficient,  had  enabled  the  factory  product,  notably  that 
of  Denmark  and  Sweden,  to  compete  successfully  with 
the  home-made  article,  both  in  quality  and  cost  of  pro- 
duction. Here,  it  will  be  observed,  was  an  opportunity 
for  an  experiment  in  co-operative  production,  under 
modern  industrial  conditions,  which  would  put  the  asso- 
ciative qualities  of  the  Irish  farmer  to  a  test  which  the 
British  artisan  had  not  stood  quite  as  well  as  the  founders 
of  the  co-operative  movement  had  anticipated.  To  add 
to  the  interest  of  the  situation,  capitalists  had  seized  upon 


l88  THE    NEW    MOVEMENT    AND    SELF-HELP. 

the  material  advantages  which  the  abundant  supply  of 
Irish  milk  afforded,  and  the  green  pastures  of  the 
"  Golden  Vein "  were  studded  with  snow  white 
creameries  which  proclaimed  the  transfer  of  this 
great  Irish  industry  from  the  tiller  of  the  soil  to  the  man 
of  commerce.  The  new-comers  secured  the  milk  of  the 
district  by  giving  the  farmer  much  more  for  his  milk  than 
it  was  worth  to  him,  so  long  as  he  pursued  the  old 
methods  of  home  manufacture.  This  induced  farmers  to 
go  out  of  the  butter-making  business.  After  a  while  the 
price  was  reduced,  and  the  proprietor,  finding  it  neces- 
sary to  give  the  suppliers  only  what  they  could  make 
out  of  their  milk  without  his  modern  equipment,  realised 
profits  altogether  out  of  proportion  to  his  share  of  the 
capital  embarked  or  the  labour  involved  in  the  production 
of  the  butter. 

The  economic  position  was  ideal  for  our  purpose,  and 
we  had  no  difficulty  in  explaining  it  to  the  farmers 
themselves.  The  social  problem  was  the  real  difficulty. 
To  all  suggestions  of  co-operative  action  they  at  first 
opposed  a  hopeless  non  possumus.  Their  objections 
may  be  summed  up  thus : — They  had  never  combined  for 
any  business  purpose.  How  could  they  trust  the  Com- 
mittee they  were  asked  to  elect  from  amongst  them- 
selves to  expend  their  money  and  conduct  their  business  ? 
It  was  all  very  well  for  the  proprietor  with  his  ample 
capital,  free  hand,  and  business  experience,  to  work 
with  complicated  machinery  and  to  consign  his  butter 
out  of  the  reach  of  the  local  butter  buyer,  and  to  save 


THE    DRUM    IN    ECONOMICS.  189 

the  waste  and  delay  of  the  local  butter  market.  But 
they  knew  nothing  of  the  business  and  would  only  make 
fools  of  themselves.  'The  promoters — they  were  not 
putting  anything  into  the  scheme — how  much  did  they 
intend  to  take  out?* 

There  was  nothing  in  this  attitude  of  mind  which  we 
had  not  fully  anticipated.  We  were  confident  that,  as  we 
were  on  sound  economic  ground,  no  matter  what  diffi- 
culties might  confront  us  it  was  only  a  question  of  time 
for  the  attainment  of  our  ends.  All  that  was  required 
was  that  we  should  keep  pegging  away.  My  own 
experience  was  not  encouraging  at  first.  I  was,  and  am, 
a  poor  speaker,  and  in  Ireland  a  man  who  cannot  express 
his  thoughts  with  facility,  whether  he  has  got  them  or 
not,  accentuates  the  difficulties  under  which  a  prophet 
labours  in  his  own  country.  I  made  up  for  my  defi- 
ciencies in  the  first  essential  of  Irish  public  life  by 
engaging  a  very  eloquent  political  speaker,  the  late  Mr. 
Mulhallen  Marum,  M.P.,  to  stump  the  country.  He 
gave  to  the  propaganda  a  relish  which  my  prosaic 
economics  altogether  lacked.  The  nationalist  band 
sometimes  came  out  to  meet  him.  We  all  know  the 
efficiency  of  the  drum  in  politics  and  religion,  but  it 
seemed  to  me  a  little  out  of  place  in  economics.  How- 
ever, he  created  an  excellent  impression,  but  unhappily 

*  The  late  Canon  Bagot  had  done  good  service  in  explaining  the 
value  of  the  new  machinery  ;  but  unhappily  the  vital  importance  of 
co-operative  organisation  was  not  then  understood.  He  formed  some 
joint  stock  companies  with  the  result  that,  having  no  co-operative 
spirit  to  offset  their  commercial  inexperience,  they  all  proved,  instead 
of  co-operative  successes,  competitive  failures.  This  fact  added  to  our 
early  difficulties, 


THE    NEW    MOVEMENT    AND    SELF-HELP. 

he  died  of  heart  disease  before  he  had  attended  more 
than  three  or  four  meetings.  This  was  a  severe  blow  to 
us,  and  we  toiled  away  under  some  temporary  discourage- 
ment. My  own  diary  records  attendance  at  fifty  meetings 
before  a  single  society  had  resulted  therefrom.  It  was 
weary  work  for  a  long  time.  These  gatherings  were 
miserable  affairs  compared  with  those  which  greeted  our 
political  speakers.  On  one  occasion  the  agricultural 
community  was  represented  by  the  Dispensary  Doctor, 
the  Schoolmaster,  and  the  Sergeant  of  Police.  Some- 
times, in  spite  of  copious  advertising  of  the  meeting,  the 
prosaic  nature  of  the  objects  had  got  abroad,  and 
nobody  met 

Mr.  Anderson,  who  sometimes  accompanied  me  and 
sometimes  went  his  rounds  alone,  had  similar  experi- 
ences. I  may  quote  a  passage  from  some  of  his  remin- 
iscences, recently  published  in  the  Irish  Homestead,  the 
organ  of  the  co-operative  movement  in  Ireland. 

It  was  hard  and  thankless  work.  There  was  the 
apathy  of  the  people  and  the  active  opposition  of  the  Press 
and  the  politicians.  It  would  be  hard  to  say  now  whether 
the  abuse  of  the  Conservative  Cork  Constitution  or  that  of 
the  Nationalist  Eagle,  of  Skibbereen,  was  the  louder.  We 
were  "  killing  the  calves,"  we  were  "  forcing"  the  young 
women  to  emigrate,"  we  were  "  destroying  the  industry." 
Mr.  Plunkett  was  described  as  a  "  monster  in  human 
shape,"  and  was  adjured  to  "  cease  his  hellish  work."  I 
was  described  as  his  "  Man  Friday  "  and  as  "  Rough- 
rider  Anderson."  Once,  when  I  thought  I  had  planted  a 
Creamery  within  the  precincts  of  the  town  of  Rathkeale, 
my  co-operative  apple-cart  was  upset  by  a  local  solicitor 


FORMATION'    OF    THE    I.A.O.S. 

who,  having  elicited  the  fact  that  our  movement  recog- 
nised neither  political  nor  religious  differences — that  the 
Unionist-Protestant  cow  was  as  dear  to  us  as  her  Nation- 
alist-Catholic sister — gravely  informed  me  that  our  pro- 
gramme would  not  suit  Rathkeale.  "  Rathkeale,"  said 
he,  pompously,  "  is  a  Nationalist  town — Nationalist  to 
the  backbone — and  every  pound  of  butter  made  in  this 
Creamery  must  be  made  on  Nationalist  principles,  or  it 
shan't  be  made  at  all."  This  sentiment  was  applauded 
loudly,  and  the  proceedings  terminated. 

On  another  occasion  a  similar  project  was  abandoned 
because  the  flow  of  water  to  the  disused  mill  which  it  was 
proposed  to  convert  into  a  creamery,  passed  through  a 
conduit  lined  with  cement  originally  purchased  from  a 
man  who  now  occupied  a  farm  from  which  another  had 
been  evicted.  To  some  minds  these  little  complications 
would  have  spelled  failure.  To  my  associates  they  but 
accentuated  the  need  for  the  movement  which  they  had 
so  laboriously  thought  out,  and  the  very  nature  of  the 
difficulties  confirmed  them  in  their  belief  that  the 
economic  doctrine  they  were  preaching  was  adapted  to 
meet  the  requirements  of  the  case.  And  so  the  event 
proved. 

In  the  year  1894  the  movement  had  gathered  volume 
to  such  an  extent — although  the  societies  then  numbered 
but  one  for  every  twenty  that  are  in  existence  to-day — 
that  it  became  beyond  the  power  of  a  few  individuals  to 
direct  its  further  progress.  In  April  of  that  year  a 
meeting  was  held  in  Dublin  to  inaugurate  the  Irish 
Agricultural  Organisation  Society,  Ltd.  (now  commonly 
known  as  the  I.A.O.S.),  which  was  to  be  the  analogue 


IQ2  THE    NEW    MOVEMENT   AND    SELF-HELP. 

of  the  Co-operative  Union  in  England.       In  the  first 
instance  it  was  to  consist  of  philanthropic  persons,  but 
its  constitution  provided  for  the  inclusion  in  its  mem- 
bership of  the  societies  which  had  already  been  created 
and  those  which  it  would  itself  create  as  time  went  on. 
It   had,   and   has   to-day,   a   thoroughly  representative 
Committee.    I  was  elected  the  first  President,  a  position 
which  I  held  until  I  entered  official  life,  when  Lord 
Monteagle,    a    practical    philanthropist    if    ever    there 
was  one,  became  my  successor.      Father  Finlay,  who 
joined  the   movement  in   1892,   and  who  has   devoted 
the  extraordinary  influence  which  he  possesses  over  the 
rural  population  of  Ireland  to  the  dissemination  of  our 
economic  principles,  became  Vice-President.     Both  he 
and  Lord  Monteagle  have  been  annually  re-elected  ever 
since. 

The  growth  of  the  movement  in  the  last  nine  years 
under  the  fostering  care  of  the  I.A.O.S.  is  highly  satis- 
factory. By  the  autumn  of  this  year  (1903)  considerably 
over  eight  hundred  societies  had  been  established,  and 
the  number  is  ever  growing ;  of  these  360  were  dairy, 
and  140  agricultural  societies,  nearly  200  agricultural 
banks,  50  home  industries  societies,  40  poultry  societies, 
while  there  were  40  others  with  miscellaneous  objects. 
The  membership  may  be  estimated — I  am  writing  to- 
wards the  end  of  the  Society's  statistical  year — at  about 
80,000,  representing  some  400,000  persons.  The  com- 
bined trade  turnover  of  these  societies  during  the  present 
year  will  reach  approximately  £2,000,000,  a  figure  the 


FEDERATION   OF    SOCIETIES.  T.Q3 

meaning  of  which  can  only  be  appreciated  when  it  is 
remembered  that  the  great  majority  of  the  associated 
farmers  are  in  so  small  a  way  of  business  that  in  Eng- 
land they  would  hardly  be  classed  as  fanners  at  alL 

These  societies  consist,  as  has  been  explained,  of 
groups  of  farmers  who  have  been  taught  by  organ- 
isers that  certain  branches  of  their  business  can  be  more 
profitably  conducted  in  association  than  by  individuals 
acting  separately.  The  principle  of  agricultural  co- 
operation with  its  economic  advantages  will,  as  time 
goes  on,  be  further  extended  by  the  combined  action  of 
societies.  With  this  end  in  view  federations  are  con- 
stantly being  formed  with  a  constitution  similar  to  that 
of  the  societies,  the  only  difference  being  that  the 
members  of  the  federation  are  not  individuals  but 
societies,  the  government  of  the  central  body  being 
carried  on  by  delegates  from  its  constituent  associations. 
The  two  largest  of  these  federations,  one  for  the  sale  of 
butter,  and  another  for  the  combined  purchase  by 
societies  of  their  agricultural  requirements,  have  been 
working  successfully  for  several  years.  Federations, 
too,  are  being  formed,  as  societies  find  that  their  business 
can  be  conducted  more  economically,  for  example,  in 
dairying  by  centralising  the  manufacture  of  butter,  or  in 
the  egg  export  trade  by  the  alliance  of  many  districts  to 
enable  large  contracts  to  be  undertaken.  In  the  near 
future  a  further  development  of  federation  will  be  re- 
quired to  complete  a  scheme  now  under  consideration 

for  the  mutual  insurance  of  live  stock.     Such  a  scheme 

o 


IQ4  THE    NEW    MOVEMENT   AND    SELF-HELP. 

involves  the  existence  of  two  prime  conditions,  a  local 
organisation  for  the  purpose  of  effective  supervision,  and 
the  spreading  of  the  risk  over  a  large  area. 

In  all  such  enterprises  and  economic  changes  the 
Organisation  Society  is  either  the  initiator,  or  is  called 
in  for  advice,  and  its  continued  existence  in  a  purely 
advisory  capacity  as  a  link  between  the  societies  where 
concerted  action  is  required,  will  be  necessary  e\ren 
when  the  organisation  of  farmers  into  societies  is 
completed.  The  economic  life  of  rural  communities  is  in 
continual  need  of  adjustment.  Now  it  is  an  invention 
like  a  steam  separator  which  revolutionises  an  industry. 
At  another  time  the  crisis  created  by  a  change  in  the 
tariff  of  a  foreign  country  forces  the  producer  either  to 
find  a  new  outlet  for  his  wares,  or  to  abandon  a  hitherto 
profitable  employment.  A  striking  instance  of  the  value 
of  organisation  and  connection  with  a  central  advisory 
body  occurred  in  1887,  when  swine  fever  broke  out  in 
Denmark,  and  the  exports  of  live  swine  fell  from 
230,000  in  one  year  to  16,000  in  the  next.  The  organisa- 
tion of  the  farmers,  however,  enabled  them  easily  to  con- 
sult together  how  best  to  meet  the  emergency,  and  their 
decision  to  start  co-operative  bacon-curing  factories  was 
the  foundation  of  their  present  great  export  trade  in 
manufactured  bacon. 

I  must  not  overburden  with  details  a  narrative  in- 
tended for  readers  to  whom  I  merely  wish  to  give  a 
deeper  and  wider  understanding  of  Irish  life  than  most 
of  them  probably  possess.  But  there  is  just  one  form  of 


CO-OPERATION    AND    CREDIT. 

agricultural  co-operation  to  which  I  can  usefully  devote 
a  few  paragraphs,  because  it  throws  much  light  upon  the 
associative  qualities  of  the  people  and  also  upon  the 
educational  and  social  value  of  the  movement.  I  refer 
to  the  Agricultural  Banks,  more  properly  called  Credit 
Associations,  which  have  been  organised  upon  the 
Raiffeisen  system.  Before  the  Irish  Agricultural  Organ- 
isation Society  was  formed  we  had  read  of  these  institu- 
tions, and  of  the  marvellously  beneficial  effect  they  had 
produced  upon  the  most  depressed  rural  communities 
abroad.  But  only  in  the  last  few  years  have  we  fully 
realised  that  they  are  even  more  required  and  are  likely 
to  do  more  good  in  Ireland  than  in  any  other  country ; 
for  on  the  psychological  side  of  our  work  we  formerly  but 
dimly  saw  things  which  we  now  see  clearly. 

The  exact  purpose  of  these  organisations  is  to 
create  credit  as  a  means  of  introducing  capital  into 
the  agricultural  industry.  They  perform  the  apparent 
miracle  of  giving  solvency  to  a  community  composed 
almost  entirely  of  insolvent  individuals.  The  con- 
stitution of  these  bodies,  which  can,  of  course,  be 
described  only  in  broad  outline  here,  is  somewhat 
startling.  They  have  no  subscribed  capital,  but  every 
member  is  liable  for  the  entire  debts  of  the  association. 
Consequently  the  association  takes  good  care  to  admit 
men  of  approved  character  and  capacity  only.  It  starts 
by  borrowing  a  sum  of  money  on  the  joint  and  several 
security  of  its  members.  A  member  wishing  to  borrow 
from  the  association  is  not  required  to  give  tangible 


ig6  THE    NEW    MOVEMENT  AND    SELF-HELP. 

security,  but  must  bring  two  sureties.  He  fills  up  an 
application  form  which  states,  among  other  things,  what 
he  wants  the  money  for.  The  rules  provide — and  this  is 
the  salient  feature  of  the  system — that  a  loan  shall  be 
made  for  a  productive  purpose  only,  that  is,  a  purpose 
which,  in  the  judgment  of  the  other  members  of  the 
association  as  represented  by  a  committee  democrati- 
cally elected  from  among  themselves,  will  enable  the 
borrower  to  repay  the  loan  out  of  the  results  of  the 
use  made  of  the  money  lent. 

Raiffeisen  held,  and  our  experience  in  Ireland 
has  fully  confirmed  his  opinion,  that  in  the  poorest 
communities  there  is  a  perfectly  safe  basis  of  secu- 
rity in  the  honesty  and  industry  of  its  members. 
This  security  is  not  valuable  to  the  ordinary  commercial 
lender,  such  as  the  local  joint  stock  bank.  Even  if  such 
lenders  had  the  intimate  knowledge  possessed  by  the 
committee  of  one  of  these  associations  as  to  the  character 
and  capacity  of  the  borrower,  they  would  not  be  able  to 
satisfy  themselves  that  the  loan  was  required  for  a  really 
productive  purpose,  nor  would  they  be  able  to  see 
that  it  was  properly  applied  to  the  stipulated  object. 
One  of  the  rules  of  the  co-operative  banks  provides  for 
the  expulsion  of  a  member  who  does  not  apply  the 
money  to  the  agreed  productive  purpose.  But  although 
these  "  Banks "  are  almost  invariably  situated  in  very 
poor  districts,  there  has  been  no  necessity  to  put  this  rule 
in  force  in  a  single  instance.  Social  influer  ,es  seem  to  be 
quite  sufficient  to  secure  obedience  to  the  association's  laws. 


THE    LUCKY    MONEY.  1 97 

Another  advantage  conferred  by  the  association  is 
that  the  term  for  which  money  is  advanced  is  a 
matter  of  agreement  between  the  borrower  and  the 
bank.  The  hard  and  fast  term  of  three  months 
which  prevails  in  Ireland  for  small  loans  is  un- 
suited  to  the  requirements  of  the  agricultural  industry — 
as  for  instance,  when  a  man  borrows  money  to  sow  a 
crop,  and  has  to  repay  it  before  harvest.  The  society 
borrows  at  four  or  five  per  cent,  and  lends  at  five  or  six 
per  cent.  In  some  cases  the  Congested  Districts  Board  or 
the  Department  of  Agriculture  have  made  loans  to  these 
banks  at  three  per  cent.  This  enables  the  societies  to  lend 
at  the  popular  rate  of  one  penny  for  the  use  of  one  pound 
for  a  month.  The  expenses  of  administration  are  very 
small.  As  the  credit  of  these  associations  develops, 
they  will  become  a  depository  for  the  savings  of  the 
community,  to  the  great  advantage  of  both  lender  and 
borrower.  The  latter  generally  makes  an  enormous 
profit  out  of  these  loans,  which  have  accordingly  gained 
the  name  of  '  the  lucky  money/  and  we  find,  in  practice, 
that  he  always  repays  the  association  and  almost  invari- 
ably with  punctuality. 

The  sketch  I  have  given  of  the  agricultural  banks  will, 
perhaps,  be  sufficient  to  show  what  an  immense  educa- 
tional and  economic  benefit  they  are  likely  to  confer 
when  they  are  widely  extended  throughout  Ireland,  as  I 
hope  they  will  be  in  the  near  future.  Under  this  system, 
which,  to  quote  the  report  of  the  Indian  Famine  Com- 
mission, 1901,  '  separates  the  working  bees  from  the 


IQo  THE    NEW    MOVEMENT    AND    SELF-HELP. 

drones,'  the  industrious  men  of  the  community  who  had 
no  clear  idea  before  of  the  meaning  or  functions  of 
capital  or  credit,  and  who  were  generally  unable  to  get 
capital  into  their  industry  except  at  exorbitant  rates  of 
interest  and  upon  unsuitable  terms,  are  now  able  to 
get,  not  always,  indeed,  all  the  money  they  want,  but 
all  the  money  they  can  well  employ  for  the  improvement 
of  their  industry.  There  is  no  fear  of  rash  investment 
of  capital  in  enterprises  believed  to  be,  but  not  in  reality 
productive — the  committee  take  good  care  of  that.  The 
whole  community  is  taught  the  difference  between  bor- 
rowing to  spend  and  borrowing  to  make.  You  have  the 
collective  wisdom  of  the  best  men  in  the  association 
helping  the  borrower  to  decide  whether  he  ought  to 
borrow  or  not,  and  then  assisting  him,  if  only  from 
motives  of  self-interest,  to  make  the  loan  fulfil  the 
purpose  for  which  it  was  made.  I  was  delighted  to  find 
when  I  was  making  an  enquiry  into  the  working  of  the 
system  that,  whereas  the  debt-laden  peasants  had  for- 
merly concealed  their  indebtedness,  of  which  they  were 
ashamed,  those  who  were  in  debt  to  the  new  banks  were 
proud  of  the  fact,  as  it  was  the  best  testimonial  to  their 
character  for  honesty  and  industry.* 

*  It  should  be  noted  that  this  form  of  association  for  credit 
purposes,  owing  to  its  peculiar  constitution,  applies  only  to  a  grade  of 
the  community  whose  members  all  live  on  about  the  same  scale  and 
that  a  fairly  low  one.  It  is  obvious  that  unlimited  liability  would  lose 
its  efficacy  in  developing  the  sense  of  responsibility  if  some  members 
of  the  association  were  so  substantial  that  its  creditors  would  make  them 
primarily  responsible  in  the  event  of  failure.  The  fact,  however,  tha 
the  scheme  has  worked  with  unvarying  success  among  the  poorest  of 
the  poor,  and  the  most  Irish  of  the  Irish,  renders  it  as  good  an  illustra- 


THE   BRIGHTENING   OF    RURAL   LIFE. 

One  other  sphere  of  activity  worked  by  the  co- 
operative associations  needs  a  passing  notice.  The 
desire  that,  together  with  material  amelioration,  there 
should  be  a  corresponding  intellectual  advancement  and 
a  greater  beauty  in  life  has  prompted  many  of  the 
farmers'  societies  to  use  their  organisation  for  higher 
ends.  A  considerable  number  of  them  have  started 
Village  Libraries,  and  by  an  admirable  selection  of 
books  have  brought  to  their  members,  not  only  the 
means  of  educating  themselves  in  the  more  difficult  tech- 
nical problems  of  their  industry,  but  also  a  means  of 
access  to  that  enchanted  world  of  Irish  thought  which 
inspires  the  Gaelic  Revival  to  which  I  have  already 
referred.  Social  gatherings  of  every  kind,  dances, 
lectures,  concerts,  and  such  like  entertainments,  which 
have  the  two-fold  effect  of  brightening  rural  life  and 
increasing  the  attachment  of  the  members  to  their 
society,  are  becoming  a  common  feature  in  the  move- 
ment, and  this  more  human  aspect  has  attracted  to  it 
the  attention  of  many  who  do  not  understand  its  econo- 
mic side.  We  have  gratifying  evidence  from  many  of  the 
clergy  that  the  movement  thus  developed  has  kept  at 
home  young  people  who  would  otherwise  have  fled  from 
the  continued  hardship  and  intellectual  emptiness  of 
rural  life  at  home. 

tion  as  can  be  found  of  what  may  be  done  by  sympathetic  and  intelligent 
treatment  of  Irish  economic  problems.  Mr.  Henry  W.  Wolff,  the 
foremost  authority  on  People's  Banks  in  these  islands,  and  Mr.  R.  A. 
Yerburgh,  M.P.,  a  generous  subscriber  to  the  Irish  Agricultural 
Organisation  Society,  have  taken  great  interest  in  this  part  of  the 
movement  and  have  rendered  much  assistance. 


20O  THE    NEW    MOVEMENT   AND    SELF-HELP. 

These  results  are  in  no  small  measure  due  to  the 
zeal  and  devotion  of  the  governing  body  and  staff  of  the 
I.A.O.S.  The  general  policy  of  the  society  is  guided  by 
a  committee  of  twenty-four  members,  one-half  of  whom 
are  elected  by  the  individual  subscribers  and  the  other 
half  by  the  affiliated  societies.  It  is  representative  in  the 
best  sense  and  influential  accordingly.  The  success  of 
the  Committee  is  no  doubt  mainly  due  to  the  wisdom 
which  they  have  displayed  in  the  selection  of  the  staff.  In 
the  most  important  post,  that  of  Secretary,  they  have 
kept  on  my  chief  fellow-worker  in  the  early  struggle, 
Mr.  R.  A.  Anderson,  who  has  devoted  himself  to  the 
cause  with  all  the  energy  of  a  nature  at  once  enthusi- 
astic, unselfish,  and  practical,  and  who  has  succeeded  in 
inspiring  his  staff  of  organisers  and  experts  with  his  own 
spirit.  Among  these,  two  deserve  special  mention,  Mr. 
George  W.  Russell,  one  of  the  Assistant  Secretaries,  who 
has,  under  the  nom  de  -plume  "  A.  E.,"  attained  fame  for  a 
poetry  of  rare  distinction  of  thought  and  diction,  and 
Mr.  P.  J.  Hannon,  the  other  Assistant  Secretary,  who 
has  proved  himself  a  splendid  propagandist.  Each  of 
these  gentlemen  has  brought  to  the  movement  a  zeal  and 
ability  which  could  only  come  of  a  devotion  to  high 
ideals  of  patriotism,  curiously  combined  with  a  shrewd 
practical  instinct  for  carrying  on  varied  and  responsible 
business  undertakings. 

With  the  growing  work  the  staff  has  been  repeatedly 
augmented  to  enable  the  central  society  to  keep  pace 
with  the  demand  made  by  groups  of  farmers  to  be 


CONTINUED    NEED    FOR    CENTRAL    BODY.  2OI 

initiated  into  the  principles  of  co-operative  organisation 
and  the  details  of  its  application  to  the  particular 
branches  of  farming  carried  on  in  their  several  districts. 
At  the  same  time  the  societies  which  have  been  estab- 
lished need,  during  their  earlier  years,  and  with  each  ex- 
tension of  their  operations,  constant  advice  and  supervi- 
sion. Hence  skilled  organisers  have  to  be  kept  to  form 
co-operative  dairy  societies,  inspect  creameries,  and  give 
technical  advice  upon  the  manufacture  and  sale  of  butter, 
the  care  of  machinery,  the  adequacy  of  the  water  supply, 
the  drainage  system,  and  many  similar  technical  ques- 
tions. Others  are  employed  to  start  poultry  societies, 
which  when  organised  have  still  to  be  instructed  by  a 
Danish  expert  in  the  proper  method  of  packing,  selecting, 
and  grading  the  eggs  for  export.  In  tillage  districts 
there  is  a  constant  demand  for  organisers  of  purely 
agricultural  societies,  which  aim  at  the  joint  purchase  of 
seeds  and  manures,  of  implements  and  other  farm 
requisites,  and  at  the  better  disposal  of  produce  ;  while 
the  growing  importance  of  an  improved  system  of  agri- 
cultural credit  keeps  four  organisers  of  agricultural 
banks  constantly  at  work.  Home  industries,  bee-keeping, 
and  horticulture,  may  be  added  to  the  objects  for  which 
societies  have  been  formed  and  which  require  separate 
expert  organisers.  And  in  addition  to  all  this  work, 
the  central  association  has  found  it  necessary  to  keep  a 
staff  of  accountants,  versed  in  the  principles  of  co- 
operative organisation,  to  instruct  these  miscellaneous 
societies  in  simple  and  efficient  systems  of  book-keeping, 


2O2  THE    NEW    MOVEMENT    AND    SELF-HELP. 

and  in  the  general  principles  of  conducting  business. 
To  complete  the  description  of  the  propagandist  activi- 
ties of  the  central  body,  there  is  a  ceaseless  flow  of 
leaflets  and  circulars  containing  advice  and  direction  to 
bodies  of  farmers  who,  for  the  first  time  in  their  lives, 
have  combined  for  business  purposes ;  while  a  little 
weekly  paper,  the  Irish  Homestead,  acts  as  the  organ 
of  the  movement,  promotes  the  exchange  of  ideas 
between  societies  scattered  throughout  the  country, 
furnishes  useful  information  upon  all  matters  connected 
with  their  business  operations,  and  keeps  constantly 
before  the  associated  farmers  the  economic  principles 
which  must  be  observed,  and,  above  all,  the  spirit  in 
which  the  work  must  be  approached,  if  the  movement  is 
to  fulfil  its  mission.* 

One  of  the  difficulties  incidental  to  a  movement  of  this 
kind,  which,  for  the  reasons  already  set  forth,  had  to  be 
rapidly  and  widely  extended,  was  the  enormous  cost  to 
its  supporters.  It  is  needless  to  say  that  such  a  staff 
as  I  have  described  could  not  be  kept  continuously 
travelling  by  rail  and  road  for  so  many  years  without 
the  provision  of  a  large  fund.  These  officers  must 
obviously  be  men  with  exceptional  qualifications,  if  they 
are  not  only  to  impress  the  thought  of  their  agricultural 

*  Those  who  wish  to  go  more  fully  into  the  details  of  the  co-opera- 
tive agricultural  movement  in  Ireland  should  write  to  the  Secretary 
Irish  Agricultural  Organisation  Society,  22  Lincoln-place,  Dublin.  The 
publications  of  the  Society  are  somewhat  voluminous,  and  the  inquirer 
should  intimate  any  particular  branches  of  the  subject  in  which  he  is 
especially  interested.  Those  wishing  to  keep  an  courant  with  the 
urther  development  of  the  movement  would  do  well  to  take  in  the 
Irish  Homestead,  post  free  65.  6d.  per  annum. 


A   MILLIONAIRE  S  OPPORTUNITY.  203 

audiences,  but  also  to  move    them    to    action,  and  to 
sustain  the  newly  organised  societies  through  the  initial 
difficulties  of  their  unfamiliar  enterprise.     Such  men  are 
not  to  be  found  idle,  and  if  they  preach  this  gospel,  they 
are  entitled  to  live  by  it.     They  are  not  by  any  means 
overpaid,  but  their  salaries  in  the  aggregate  amount  to  a 
large  annual  sum.     Before  the  creation  of  the  Depart- 
ment of  Agriculture  and  Technical  Instruction  in  1900 
large  sums  were  spent  by  the  I.A.O.S.  not  only  in  its 
proper  work  of  organisation,  but  also  in  giving  technical 
instruction,  which  was  found  to  be  essential  to  com- 
mercial success.     When  the  Society  was  relieved  of  this 
educational  work  many  of  its  supporters  withdrew  their 
subscriptions  under  the  impression  that  there  was  now 
no  longer  any  need  for  its  continued  existence.  But  so  far 
from  the  Society's  usefulness  having  ceased,  it  has  now 
become  more  important  than  ever  that  the  doctrine  of 
organised  self-help,  which  must  be  the  foundation  of  any 
sound  Irish  economic  policy,  should  be  insisted  upon  and 
put  into  practical  operation  as  widely  as  possible.     All 
those  who  are  devoting  their  lives  to  the  firm  establish- 
ment of  this  self-help  movement  among  the  chief  wealth- 
producers  of   the   country    are    agreed    that    no   better 
educational  work  can  be  done  at  the  moment  than  that 
which  is  bringing  about  so  salutary  a  change  in  the 
economic  attitude  of  the  Irish  mind. 

It  is  not  to  be  wondered  at  that  the  greater  part  of  the 
necessary  funds  should  have  been  drawn  from  a  very 
limited  circle  of  public-spirited  men  capable  of  grasping 


204  THE    NEW    MOVEMENT   AND    SELF-HELP. 

the  significance  of  a  movement  the  practical  effect  of 
which  would  appear  to  be  permanent  only  to  those  who 
had  a  deep  insight  into  Irish  problems.*  The  difficulty 
of  a  successful  appeal  to  a  wider  public  has  been  the 
impossibility  of  giving  in  brief  form  an  adequate  explana- 
tion, such  as  that  which  it  is  hoped  these  pages  will 
afford,  of  the  part  the  movement  was  to  play  in  Irish 
life.  We  were  asked  whether  our  scheme  was  business 
or  philanthropy.  If  philanthropy,  it  would  probably  do 
more  harm  than  good  If  business,  why  was  it  not  self- 
supporting  ?  I  remember  hearing  the  movement  ridiculed 
in  the  House  of  Commons  by  a  prominent  Irish  member 
on  the  ground  that  the  accounts  of  the  I.AO.S.  showed 
that  £20,000  (£40,000  would  be  nearer  the  mark  now) 
had  been  put  into  the  '  business,'  and  that  this  large 
capital  had  been  entirely  lost!  When  we  proved  that 
agricultural  co-operation  brought  a  large  profit  to  the 
members  of  the  societies  we  formed,  it  was  suggested 
that  a  small  part  of  this  profit  would  give  us  all  we  re- 
quired for  our  organising  work.  So  it  will  in  time,  but  if 
instead  of  merely  refusing  financial  assistance  to  our  con- 
verts, we  were,  on  the  other  hand,  to  demand  it  from 
them,  we  certainly  should  not  lessen  the  difficulty  of 
launching  our  movement  among  the  farmers  of  Ireland. 
Some  of  our  critics  denounced  the  expenditure  of  so  much 
money  for  which,  in  their  opinion,  there  was  nothing  to 


*  The  chief  donors  belong  to  the  class  of  philanthropists  who  do  not 
care  to  advertise  their  beneficence.  I,  therefore,  respect  their  wishes 
and  withhold  their  names. 


THE    EMPTY    SPOON.  205 

show,  and  said  that  the  time  had  come  to  stop  this  '  spoon- 
feeding.' When  those  for  whose  exclusive  benefit  the 
costly  work  had  been  undertaken  learned  that  all  we  had 
to  offer  was  the  cold  advice  that  they  should  help  them- 
selves, they  not  infrequently  raised  a  wholly  different 
objection  to  our  economic  doctrine.  Spoonfeeding  they 
might  have  tolerated,  but  there  was  nothing  in  the  spoon ! 
The  movement  has  survived  all  these  criticisms.  The 
lack  of  moral  and  of  financial  support  which  retarded  its 
progress  in  the  early  years,  has  been  so  far  surmounted. 
The  movement  may  now,  I  think,  appeal  for  further  help 
as  one  that  has  justified  its  existence.  The  opinion 
that  it  has  done  so  is  not  held  only  by  those  who 
are  engaged  in  promoting  it,  nor  by  Irish  observers 
alone.  The  efforts  of  the  Irish  farmers  so  to  reorganise 
their  industry  that  they  may  hopefully  approach  the  solu- 
tion of  the  problems  of  rural  life  are  being  watched  by 
economists  and  administrators  abroad.  Enquirers  have 
come  to  Ireland  during  the  last  two  years  from  Germany, 
France,  Canada,  the  United  States,  India,  South  Africa, 
Cyprus  and  the  West  Indies,  having  been  drawn  here 
by  the  desire  to  understand  the  combination  of  economic 
and  human  reform.  It  was  not  alone  the  economic 
advantages  of  the  movement  which  interested  them,  but 
the  way  in  which  the  organisation  at  the  same  time  acted 
upon  the  character  and  awoke  those  forces  of  self-help 
and  comradeship  in  which  lies  the  surety  of  any  enduring 
national  prosperity.  A  native  governor  from  a  famine 
district  in  the  Madras  Presidency,  who,  perhaps,  better 


2O6  THE    NEW    MOVEMENT   AND    SELF-HELP. 

than  any  one  realised  the  importance  of  these  human 
factors,  because  the  lethargy  of  his  own  people  had 
forced  it  on  his  notice,  said,  when  he  was  referred  to  the 
Department  of  Agriculture  and  Technical  Instruction  for 
information,  "  Oh,  don't  speak  to  me  about  Government 
Departments.  They  are  the  same  all  over  the  world.  I 
come  here  to  learn  what  the  Irish  people  are  doing  to 
help  themselves  and  how  you  awaken  the  will  and  the 
initiative."  I  hope  to  show  later  that  State  assistance 
properly  applied  is  not  necessarily  demoralising  but 
very  much  the  reverse.  It  is  consoling,  too,  to  our 
national  pride,  long  wounded  by  contemptuous  references 
to  our  industrial  incapacity  as  compared  with  our  neigh- 
bours, to  find  that  our  latest  efforts  are  regarded  by  them 
as  worthy  of  imitation.  From  the  other  side  of  the 
Channel  no  less  than  five  County  Councils  have  sent 
deputations  of  farmers  to  Ireland  to  study  the  progress 
of  the  movement,  and  already  an  English  Organisation 
Society,  expressly  modelled  upon  its  Irish  namesake, 
has  been  established  and  is  endeavouring  to  carry  out 
the  same  work. 

It  is  not  surprising  that  the  facts  which  I  have  cited 
should  be  interesting  to  the  honest  inquirer.  A  summary 
of  actual  achievement  will  show  that  this  movement  has 
spread  all  over  Ireland,  that  its  principle  of  organised 
self-help  has  been  universally  accepted,  and  that  nothing 
but  time  and  the  necessary  funds  are  required  by  its 
promoters  to  give  it,  within  the  range  of  its  applicability, 
general  effect.  It  is  no  exaggeration  to  say  that  there 


SOME    INDIRECT    EFFECTS.  207 

has  been  set  in  motion  and  carried  beyond  the  experi- 
mental stage  a  revolution  in  agricultural  methods  which 
will  enable  our  farmers  to  compete  with  their  rivals 
abroad,  both  in  production  and  in  distribution,  under  far 
more  favourable  conditions  than  before.  Alike  in  its 
material  and  in  its  moral  achievements  this  movement 
has  provided  an  effective  means  whereby  the  peasant 
proprietary  about  to  be  created  will  be  able  to  face  and 
solve  the  vital  problems  before  it,  problems  for  which  no 
improvement  in  land  tenure,  no  rent  reductions  actual  or 
prospective,  could  otherwise  provide  an  adequate  solu- 
tion. Furthermore,  nothing  could  be  more  evident  to 
any  close  observer  of  Irish  life  than  the  fact  that  had  it 
not  been  for  the  new  spirit  which  the  workers  in  this 
movement,  mostly  humble  unknown  men,  had  generated, 
the  attitude  of  the  Irish  democracy  towards  England's 
latest  concession  to  Ireland  would  have  been  very  dif- 
ferent from  what  it  is.  In  the  last  dozen  years  hundreds 
and  thousands  of  meetings  have  been  held  to  discuss 
matters  of  business  importance  to  our  rural  communities. 
At  these  meetings  landlord  and  tenant-farmer  have  often 
met  each  other  for  the  first  time  on  a  footing  of  friendly 
equality,  as  fellow-members  of  co-operative  societies.  It 
is  significant  that  all  through  the  negotiations  which 
culminated  in  the  Dunraven  Treaty,  landlords  who  had 
come  into  the  life  of  the  people  in  connection  with  the 
co-operative  movement  took  a  prominent  part  in  favour 
of  conciliation. 

I  would  further  give  it  as  my  opinion,  whatever  it  may 


208  THE    NEW    MOVEMENT    AND    SELF-HELP. 

be  worth,  that  the  movement  has  exercised  a  profound 
influence  in  those  departments  of  our  national  life  where, 
as  I  have  shown  in  previous  chapters,  new  forces  must 
be  not  only  recognised  but  accepted  as  essential  to 
national  well-being,  if  we  are  to  cherish  what  is  good 
and  free  ourselves  from  what  is  bad  in  the  historical 
evolution  of  our  national  life.  In  the  domain  of  politics 
it  is  hard  to  estimate  even  the  political  value  of  the 
exclusion  of  politics  from  deliberations  and  activities 
where  they  have  no  proper  place.  In  our  religious  life, 
where  intolerance  has  perpetuated  anti-industrial  ten- 
dencies, the  new  movement  is  seen  to  be  bringing 
together  for  business  purposes  men  who  had  previously 
no  dealings  with  each  other,  but  who  have  now  learned 
that  the  doctrine  of  self-help  by  mutual  help  involves  no 
danger  to  faith  and  no  sacrifice  of  hope,  while  it  engenders 
a  genuinely  Christian  interpretation  of  charity.* 

I  cannot  conclude  the  story  of  this  movement  without 
paying  a  brief  tribute  of  respect  and  gratitude  to  those 
true  patriots  who  have  borne  the  daily  burden  of  the 

*  I  recall  an  occasion  when  the  Vice-President  of  the  I.A.O.S.  (a 
Nationalist  in  politics  and  a  Jesuit  priest),  who  has  been  ever  ready  to 
end  a  hand  as  volunteer  organiser  when  the  prior  claims  of  his  reli- 
gious and  educational  duties  allowed,  found  himself  before  an  audience 
which  he  was  informed,  when  he  came  to  the  meeting,  consisted  mainly 
of  Orangemen.  He  began  his  address  by  referring  to  the  new  and  some- 
what strange  environment  into  which  he  had  drifted.  He  did  not, 
however,  see  why  this  circumstance  should  lead  to  any  misunder- 
standing between  himself  and  his  audience.  He  had  never  been  able 
to  understand  what  a  battle  fought  upon  a  famous  Irish  river  two 
centuries  ago  had  got  to  do  with  the  practical  issues  of  to-day  which  he 
had  come  to  discuss.  The  dispute  in  question  was,  after  all,  between 
a  Scotchman  and  a  Dutchman,  and  if  it  had  not  yet  been  decided,  they 
might  be  left  to  settle  it  themselves — that  is  if  too  great  a  gulf  did  not 
separate  them 


THE    REAL    CONQUERORS.  20Q 

work.  I  hope  the  picture  I  have  given  of  their  aims  and 
achievements  will  lead  to  a  just  appreciation  of  their 
services  to  their  country.  By  these  men  and  women 
applause  or  even  recognition  was  not  expected  or 
desired :  they  knew  that  it  was  to  those  who  had  the  ad- 
vantages of  leisure,  and  what  the  world  calls  position,  that 
the  credit  for  their  work  would  be  given.  But  it  is  of 
national  importance  that  altruistic  service  should  be  under- 
stood and  given  freedom  of  expansion.  I  have,  therefore, 
presented  as  faithfully  as  I  could  the  origin  and  develop- 
ment of  one  of  the  least  understood,  but  in  my  opinion, 
most  fruitful  movements  which  has  ever  been  undertaken 
by  a  body  of  social  and  economic  reformers.  As  Irish 
leaders  they  have  preferred  to  remain  obscure,  conscious 
that  the  most  damaging  criticism  which  could  be  applied 
to  their  work  would  be  that  it  depended  on  their  own 
personal  qualities  or  acts  for  its  permanent  utility.  But 
most  assuredly  the  real  conquerors  of  the  world  are  those 
who  found  upon  human  character  their  hopes  of  human 
progress. 


CHAPTER    VIII. 
THE  RECESS  COMMITTEE. 

The  new  movement,  six  years  after  its  initiation,  had 
succeeded  beyond  the  most  sanguine  expectations  of  its 
promoters.  All  over  the  country  the  idea  of  self-help 
was  taking  firm  hold  of  the  imagination  of  the  people. 
Co-operation  had  got,  so  to  speak,  into  the  air  to  such  an 
extent  that,  whereas  at  the  beginning,  as  I  well  remember, 
our  chief  difficulty  had  been  to  popularise  a  principle  to 
which  one  section  of  the  community  was  strongly 
opposed,  and  in  which  no  section  believed,  it  was  now  no 
longer  necessary  to  explain  or  support  the  theory,  but 
only  to  show  how  it  could  be  advantageously  applied  to 
some  branch  of  the  farmer's  industry.  It  was  not, 
strange  to  say,  the  economic  advantage  which  had  chiefly 
appealed  to  the  quick  intelligence  of  the  Irish  farmer, 
but  rather  the  novel  sensation  that  he  was  thinking  for 
himself,  and  that  while  improving  his  own  condition  he 
was  working  for  others.  This  attitude  was  essential  to 
the  success  of  the  movement,  because  had  it  not  been  for 
a  vein  of  altruism,  the  "  strong "  farmers  would  have 
held  aloof,  and  the  small  men  would  have  been  dis- 
couraged by  the  abstention  of  the  better-off  and  pre- 
sumably more  enlightened  of  their  class. 


RIPE    FOK    STATE    AID.  211 

Perhaps,  too,  we  owed  something  to  the  recognition 
on  the  part  of  the  working  farmers  of  Ireland  that  they 
were  showing  a  capacity  to  grasp  an  idea  which  had  so 
far  failed  to  penetrate  the  bucolic  intelligence  of  the 
predominant  partner.  Whatever  the  causes  to  which  the 
success  of  the  movement  was  attributable,  those  who 
were  responsible  for  its  promotion  felt  in  the  year  1895 
that  it  had  reached  a  stage  in  its  development  when  it 
was  but  a  question  of  time  to  complete  the  projected 
revolution  in  the  farming  industry,  the  substitution  of 
combined  for  isolated  methods  of  production  and  dis- 
tribution. It  was  then  further  brought  home  to  them 
that  the  principle  of  self-help  was  destined  to  obtain 
general  acceptance  in  rural  Ireland,  and  that  the  time 
had  come  when  a  sound  system  of  State  aid  to  agriculture 
might  be  fruitfully  grafted  on  to  this  native  growth  of 
local  effort  and  self-reliance. 

From  time  to  time  our  public  men  had  included  in  the 
list  of  Irish  grievances  the  fact  that  England  enjoyed  a 
Board  of  Agriculture  while  Ireland  had  no  similar  insti- 
tution. As  a  matter  of  fact  a  mere  replica  of  the  English 
Board  would  not  have  fulfilled  a  tithe  of  the  objects  we 
had  in  view.  That  much  at  least  we  knew,  but  beyond 
that  our  information  was  vague.  What,  having  regard 
to  Irish  rural  conditions,  should  be  the  character  and 
constitution  of  any  Department  called  into  being  to 
administer  the  aid  required?  Here  indeed  was  a  vital 
and  difficult  problem.  Even  those  of  us  who  had  given 
the  closest  thought  to  the  matter  did  not  know  exactly 


212  THE    RECESS    COMMITTEE. 

what  was  wanted ;  nor,  if  we  had  known  our  own  minds, 
could  we  have  formulated  our  demand  in  such  a  way  as 
to  have  obtained  a  backing  from  representative  public 
bodies,  associations,  and  individuals  sufficient  to  secure 
its  concession.  Instead,  therefore,  of  agitating  in  the 
conventional  manner  we  determined  to  try  to  direct  the 
best  thought  of  the  country  to  the  problem  in  hand,  with 
a  view  to  satisfying  the  Government,  and  also  ourselves, 
as  to  what  was  wanted.  We  had  confidence  that  a 
demand  presented  to  Parliament,  based  upon  calm  and 
deliberate  debate  among  the  most  competent  of  Irishmen, 
would  be  conceded.  The  story  of  this  agitation,  its 
initiation,  its  conduct,  and  its  final  success  will,  I  am  sure, 
be  of  interest  to  all  who  feel  any  concern  for  the  welfare 
of  Ireland 

I  have  accepted  the  common  characterisation  of  the 
Irish  as  a  leader-following  people.  When  we  come  to 
analyse  the  human  material  out  of  which  a  strong 
national  life  may  be  constructed,  we  find  that  there  are 
in  Ireland — in  this  connection  I  exclude  the  influence  of 
the  clergy,  with  which  I  have  dealt  specifically  in  another 
chapter — two  elements  of  leadership,  the  political  and 
the  industrial.  The  political  leaders  are  seen  to  enjoy 
an  influence  over  the  great  majority  of  the  people  which 
is  probably  as  powerful  as  that  of  any  political  leaders  in 
ancient  or  modern  times ;  but  as  a  class  they  certainly 
do  not  take  a  prominent,  or  even  an  active  part  in  busi- 
ness life.  This  fact  is  not  introduced  with  any  contro- 
versial purpose,  and  I  freely  acknowledge  can  be  inter- 


AN    APPEAL.  213 

preted  in  a  sense  altogether  creditable  to  the  Nationalist 
members.  The  other  element  of  leadership  contains  all 
that  is  prominent  in  industrial  and  commercial  life,  and 
few  countries  could  produce  better  types  of  such  leaders 
than  can  be  found  in  tbe  northern  capital  of  the  country. 
But,  unhappily,  these  men  are  debarred  from  all  influence 
upon  the  thought  and  action  of  the  great  majority  of 
the  people,  who  are  under  the  domination  of  the  political 
leaders.  This  is  one  of  the  strange  anomalies  of  Irish 
life  to  which  I  have  already  referred.  Its  recognition, 
and  the  desire  to  utilise  the  knowledge  of  business  men 
as  well  as  politicians,  took  practical  effect  in  the  forma- 
tion of  the  Recess  Committee. 

The  idea  underlying  this  project  was  the  combination 
of  these  two  forces  of  leadership — the  force  with  political 
influence  and  that  of  proved  industrial  and  commercial 
capacity — in  order  to  concentrate  public  opinion,  which 
was  believed  to  be  inclining  in  this  direction,  on  the 
material  needs  of  the  country.  The  General  Election  of 
1895  had,  by  universal  admission,  postponed,  for  some 
years  at  any  rate,  any  possibility  of  Home  Rule,  and  the 
cessation  of  the  bitter  feelings  aroused  when  Home  Rule 
seemed  imminent  provided  the  opportunity  for  an  appeal 
to  the  Irish  people  in  behalf  of  the  views  which  I  have 
adumbrated.  The  appeal  took  the  form  of  a  letter, 
dated  August  2/th,  1895,  by  the  author  to  the  Irish 
Press,  under  the  quite  sincere,  if  somewhat  grandilo- 
quent, title,  "A  proposal  affecting  the  general  welfare 
of  Ireland." 


214  THE   RECESS   COMMITTEE. 

The  letter  set  out  the  general  scope  and  purpose 
of  the  scheme.  After  a  confession  of  the  writer's 
continued  opposition  to  Home  Rule,  the  admission 
was  made  that  if  the  average  Irish  elector,  who  is 
more  intelligent  than  the  average  British  elector, 
were  also  as  prosperous,  as  industrious,  and  as  well 
educated,  his  continued  demand,  in  the  proper  constitu- 
tional way,  for  Home  Rule  would  very  likely  result  in 
the  experiment  being  one  day  tried.  On  the  other  hand, 
the  opinion  was  expressed  that  if  the  material  condi- 
tions of  the  great  body  of  our  countrymen  were 
advanced,  if  they  were  encouraged  in  industrial  enter- 
prise, and  were  provided  with  practical  education  in 
proportion  to  their  natural  intelligence,  they  would  see 
that  a  political  development  on  lines  similar  to  those 
adopted  in  England  was,  considering  the  necessary  rela- 
tions between  the  two  countries,  best  for  Ireland ;  and 
then  they  would  cease  to  desire  what  is  ordinarily  under- 
stood as  Home  Rule.  A  basis  for  united  action  between 
politicians  on  both  sides  of  the  Irish  controversy  was  then 
suggested.  Finding  ourselves  still  opposed  upon  the 
main  question,  but  all  anxious  to  promote  the  welfare  of 
the  country,  and  confident  that,  as  this  was  advanced, 
our  respective  policies  would  be  confirmed,  it  would 
appear,  it  was  suggested,  to  be  alike  good  patriotism  and 
good  policy  to  work  for  the  material  and  social  advance- 
ment of  the  people.  Why  then,  it  was  asked,  should 
any  Irishman  hesitate  to  enter  at  once  upon  that  united 
action  between  men  of  both  parties  which  alone,  under 


CONSTITUTION  OF  THE  COMMITTEE.  215 

existing  conditions,  could  enable  either  party  to  do  any 
real  and  lasting  good  to  the  country  ? 

The  letter  proceeded  to  indicate  economic  legislation 
which,  though  sorely  needed  by  Ireland,  was  hopelessly 
unattainable  unless  it  could  be  removed  from  the  region 
of  controversy.  The  modus  co-operandi  suggested  was 
as  follows : — a  committee  sitting  in  the  Parliamentary 
recess,  whence  it  came  to  be  known  as  the  Recess 
Committee,  was  to  be  formed,  consisting  in  the  first 
instance,  of  Irish  Members  of  Parliament  nominated 
by  the  leaders  of  the  different  sections.  These  nominees 
were  to  invite  to  join  them  any  Irishmen  whose  capacity, 
knowledge,  or  experience  might  be  of  service  to  the 
Committee,  irrespective  of  the  political  party  or  religious 
persuasion  to  which  they  might  belong.  The  day  had 
come,  the  letter  went  on  to  say,  when  "  we  Unionists, 
without  abating  one  jot  of  our  Unionism,  and  National- 
ists, without  abating  one  jot  of  their  Nationalism,  can 
each  show  our  faith  in  the  cause  for  which  we  have 
fought  so  bitterly  and  so  long,  by  sinking  our  party 
differences  for  our  country's  good,  and  leaving  our 
respective  policies  for  the  justification  of  time." 

Needless  to  say,  few  were  sanguine  enough  to  hope 
that  such  a  committee  would  ever  be  brought  together. 
If  that  were  accomplished  some  prophesied  that  its 
members  would  but  emulate  the  fame  of  the  Kilkenny 
cats.  A  severe  blow  was  dealt  to  the  project  at  the 
outset  by  the  refusal  of  Mr.  Justin  McCarthy,  who  then 
spoke  for  the  largest  section  of  the  Nationalist  repre- 


2l6  THE    RECESS    COMMITTEE. 

sentatives,  to  have  anything  to  do  with  it.    His  reply  to 
the  letter  must  be  given  in  full : — 

MY  DEAR  MR.  PLUNKETT, 

I  am  sure  I  need  not  say  that  any  effort  to  promote  the 
general  welfare  of  Ireland  has  my  fullest  sympathy.  I 
readily  acknowledge  and  entirely  believe  in  the  sincerity 
and  good  purpose  of  your  effort,  but  I  cannot  see  my  way 
to  associate  myself  with  it.  Your  frank  avowal  in  your 
letter  of  August  27th  is  the  expression  of  a  belief  that  if 
your  policy  could  be  successfully  carried  out  the  Irish 
people  "  would  cease  to  desire  Home  Rule."  Now,  I  do 
not  believe  that  anything  in  the  way  of  material  improve- 
ment conferred  by  the  Parliament  at  Westminster,  or  by 
Dublin  Castle,  could  extinguish  the  national  desire  for 
Home  Rule.  Still,  I  do  not  feel  that  I  could  possibly  take 
part  in  any  organisation  which  had  for  its  object  the  seek- 
ing of  a  substitute  for  that  which  I  believe  to  be  Ireland's 
greatest  need — Home  Rule. 

Yours   very  truly, 

JUSTIN   MCCARTHY. 
73,  Eaton-terrace,  S.W.,  October  22nd,  1895. 

I  had  not  much  hope  that  I  could  influence  Mr. 
McCarthy's  decision ;  but  it  was  so  serious  an  obstacle 
to  further  action  that  I  made  one  more  appeal.  I  wrote  to 
my  respected  and  courteous  correspondent,  pointing  out 
the  misconception  of  my  proposal,  which  had  arisen  from 
the  use  made  of  the  six  words  quoted  by  him,  which  were 
hardly  intelligible  without  the  context.  I  asked  him  to 
reconsider  his  refusal  to  join  in  the  proposal  for  promo- 
ting the  material  improvement  of  our  country,  on  account 
of  a  contingency  which  he  confidently  declared  could  not 


MR.  REDMOND'S  ACCEPTANCE.  217 

arise.      But  in  those  days  economic  seed  fell  upon  stony 
political  ground. 

The  position  was  rendered  still  more  difficult  by  the 
action  of  Colonel  Saunderson,  the  leader  of  the  Irish 
Unionist  party,  who  wrote  to  the  newspapers  declaring 
that  he  would  not  sit  on  a  Committee  with  Mr.  John 
Redmond.  On  the  other  hand,  Mr.  Redmond,  speaking 
then  for  the  "  Independent  "  party,  consisting  of  less  than 
a  dozen  members,  but  containing  some  men  who  agreed 
with  Mr.  Field's  admission  in  the  House  of  Commons 
that  "  man  cannot  live  on  politics  alone,"  joined  the 
Committee  and  acted  throughout  in  a  manner  which  was 
broad,  statesmanlike,  conciliatory,  and  as  generous  as  it 
was  courageous.  His  letter  of  acceptance  ran  as  follows : — 

DEAR  MR.  PLUNKETT, 

I  received  your  letter,  in  which  you  ask  me  to  co- 
operate with  you  in  bringing-  together  a  small  Committee 
of  Members  of  Parliament  to  discuss  certain  measures  to 
be  proposed  next  Session  for  the  benefit  of  Ireland.  While 
I  cannot  take  as  sanguine  a  view  as  you  do  of  the  benefits 
likely  to  flow  from  such  a  proceeding,  I  am  unwilling  to 
take  the  responsibility  of  declining  to  aid  in  any  effort  to 
promote  useful  legislation  for  Ireland. 

I  will,  under  the  circumstances,  co-operate  with  you  in 
bringing  such  a  Committee  as  you  suggest  together. 

Very  truly  yours, 

J.  E.  REDMOND. 
October  2ist,   1895. 

Before  these  decisions  were  officially  announced  the 
idea  had  "  caught  on."  Public  bodies  throughout  the 
country  endorsed  the  scheme.  The  parliamentarians, 


2l8  THE    RECESS    COMMITTEE. 

who  formed  the  nucleus  of  the  Committee,  came  to- 
gether and  invited  prominent  men  from  all  quarters  to 
join  them.  A  committee  which,  though  informal  and 
self-appointed,  might  fairly  claim  to  be  representative 
in  every  material  respect,  was  thus  constituted  on  the 
lines  laid  down. 

Truly,  it  was  a  strange  council  over  which  I  had 
the  honour  to  preside.  All  shades  of  politics  were  there 
— Lords  Mayo  and  Monteagle,  Mr.  Dane  and  Sir 
Thomas  Lea  (Tories  and  Liberal  Unionist  Peers  and 
Members  of  Parliament)  sitting  down  beside  Mr.  John 
Redmond  and  his  parliamentary  followers.  It  was  found 
possible,  in  framing  proposals  fraught  with  moral, 
social,  and  educational  results,  to  secure  the  cordial 
agreement  of  the  late  Rev.  Dr.  Kane,  Grand  Master  of 
the  Belfast  Orangemen,  and  of  the  eminent  Jesuit 
educationist,  Father  Thomas  Finlay,  of  the  Royal 
University.  The  O'Conor  Don,  the  able  Chairman  of 
the  Financial  Relations  Commission,  and  Mr.  John  Ross, 
M.P.,  now  one  of  His  Majesty's  Judges,  both  Unionists, 
were  balanced  by  the  Lord  Mayor  of  Dublin,  and  Mr. 
T.  C.  Harrington,  M.P.,  who  now  occupies  that  post, 
both  Nationalists.  The  late  Sir  John  Arnott  fitly 
represented  the  commercial  enterprise  of  the  South, 
while  such  men  as  Mr.  Thomas  Sinclair,  universally 
regarded  as  one  of  the  wisest  of  Irish  public  men, 
Sir  William  Ewart,  head  of  the  leading  linen  concern  in 
the  North,  Sir  Daniel  Dixon,  now  Lord  Mayor  of 
Belfast,  Sir  James  Musgrave,  Chairman  of  the  Belfast 


INQUIRIES    ON    THE    CONTINENT. 

Harbour  Board,  and  Mr.  Thomas  Andrews,  a  well-known 
flax- spinner  and  Chairman  of  the  Belfast  and  County 
Down  Railway,  would  be  universally  accepted  as  the 
highest  authorities  upon  the  needs  of  the  business  com- 
munity which  has  made  Ulster  famous  in  the  industrial 
world.  Mr.  T.  P.  Gill,  besides  undertaking  investiga- 
tion of  the  utmost  value  into  State  aid  to  agriculture  in 
France  and  Denmark,  acted  as  Hon.  Secretary  to  the 
Committee,  of  which  he  was  a  member- 

The  story  of  our  deliberations  and  ultimate  conclu- 
sions cannot  be  set  forth  here  except  in  the  barest 
outline.  We  instituted  an  inquiry  into  the  means  by 
which  the  Government  could  best  promote  the  develop- 
ment of  our  agricultural  and  industrial  resources,  and 
despatched  commissioners  to  countries  of  Europe  whose 
conditions  and  progress  might  afford  some  lessons  for 
Ireland.  Most  of  this  work  was  done  for  us  by  the  late 
eminent  statistician,  Mr.  Michael  Mulhall.  Our  funds 
did  not  admit  of  an  inquiry  in  the  United  States  or 
the  Colonies.  However,  we  obtained  invaluable  infor- 
mation as  to  the  methods  by  which  countries  which 
were  our  chief  rivals  in  agricultural  and  industrial 
production  have  been  enabled  to  compete  successfully 
with  our  producers  even  in  our  own  markets.  Our 
commissioners  were  instructed  in  each  case  to  collect  the 
facts  necessary  to  enable  us  to  differentiate  between  the 
parts  played  respectively  by  State  aid  and  the  efforts  of 
the  people  themselves  in  producing  these  results.  With 
this  information  before  us,  after  long  and  earnest  deli- 


22O  THE   RECESS    COMMITTEE. 

beration  we  came  to  a  unanimous  agreement  upon  the 
main  facts  of  the  situation  with  which  we  had  to  deal, 
and  upon  the  recommendations  for  remedial  legislation 
which  we  should  make  to  the  Government. 

The  substance  of  our  recommendations  was  that  a 
Department  of  Government  should  be  specially  created, 
with  a  minister  directly  responsible  to  Parliament  at  its 
head.  The  central  body  was  to  be  assisted  by  a  Con- 
sultative Council  representative  of  the  interests  con- 
cerned. The  Department  was  to  be  adequately  endowed 
from  the  Imperial  Treasury,  and  was  to  administer 
State  aid  to  agriculture  and  industries  in  Ireland  upon 
principles  which  were  fully  described.  The  proposal  to 
amalgamate  agriculture  and  industries  under  one  Depart- 
ment was  adopted  largely  on  account  of  the  opinion  ex- 
pressed by  M.  Tisserand,  late  Director-General  of  Agri- 
culture in  France,  one  of  the  highest  authorities  in  Europe 
upon  the  administration  of  State  aid  to  agriculture.* 
The  creation  of  a  new  minister  directly  responsible  to 
Parliament  was  considered  a  necessary  provision.  Ireland 
is  governed  by  a  number  of  Boards,  all,  with  the  excep- 
tion of  the  Board  of  Works  (which  is  really  a  branch  of 
the  Treasury),  responsible  to  the  Chief  Secretary — practi- 
cally a  whole  cabinet  under  one  hat — who  is  supposed  to 
be  responsible  for  them  to  Parliament  and  to  the  Lord 
Lieutenant.  The  bearers  of  this  burden  are  generally 
men  of  great  ability.  But  no  Chief  Secretary  could 

*  The  memorandum  which  he  kindly  contributed  to  the  Recess 
Committee  was  copied  into  the  Annual  Report  of  the  United  States 
Department  of  Agriculture  for  1896. 


PRESENTATION  OF  THE  REPORT.  221 

possibly  take  under  his  wing  yet  another  department 
with  the  entirely  new  and  important  functions  now  to  be 
discharged.  What  these  functions  were  to  be  need  not 
here  be  described,  as  the  Department  thus  '  agitated '  for 
has  now  been  three  years  at  work  and  will  form  the 
subject  of  the  next  two  chapters. 

On  August  1st,  1896,  less  than  a  year  from  the  issue 
of  the  invitation  to  the  political  leaders,  the  Report  was 
forwarded  to  the  Chief  Secretary  to  the  Lord  Lieu- 
tenant for  Ireland,  with  a  covering  letter,  setting  out  the 
considerations  upon  which  the  Committee  relied  for  the 
justification  of  its  course  of  action.  Attention  was  drawn 
to  the  terms  of  the  original  proposal,  its  exceptional 
nature  and  essential  informality,  the  political  conditions 
which  appeared  to  make  it  opportune,  the  spirit  in  which 
it  was  responded  to  by  those  who  were  invited  to  join, 
and  the  degree  of  public  approval  which  had  been 
accorded  to  our  action.  We  were  able  to  claim  for  the 
Committee  that  it  was  thoroughly  representative  of  those 
agricultural  and  industrial  interests,  North  and  South, 
with  which  the  Report  was  concerned. 

There  were  two  special  features  in  the  brief 
history  of  this  unique  coming  together  of  Irish- 
men which  will  strike  any  man  familiar  with  the  condi- 
tions of  Irish  public  life.  The  first  was  the  way  in  which 
the  business  element,  consisting  of  men  already  deeply 
engaged  in  their  various  callings — and,  indeed,  selected 
for  that  very  reason — devoted  time  and  labour  to  the 
service  of  their  country.  Still  more  significant  was  the 


222  THE   RECESS   COMMITTEE. 

fact  that  the  political  element  on  the  Committee  should 
have  come  to  an  absolutely  unanimous  agreement  upon 
a  policy  which,  though  not  intended  to  influence  the 
trend  of  politics,  was  yet  bound  to  have  far-reaching  con- 
sequences upon  the  political  thought  of  the  country,  and 
upon  the  positions  of  parties  and  leaders.  It  was  thought 
only  fair  to  the  Nationalist  members  of  the  Committee 
that  every  precaution  should  be  taken  to  prevent  their 
being  placed  in  a  false  position.  '  To  avoid  any  possible 
misconception,'  the  covering  letter  ran,  '  as  to  the  atti- 
tude of  those  members  of  the  Committee  who  are  not 
supporters  of  the  present  Government,  it  is  right  here  to 
state  that,  while  under  existing  political  conditions  they 
agreed  in  recommending  a  certain  course  to  the  Govern- 
ment, they  wish  it  to  be  understood  that  their  political 
principles  remain  unaltered,  and  that,  were  it  immediately 
possible,  they  would  prefer  that  the  suggested  reforms 
should  be  preceded  by  the  constitutional  changes  of 
which  they  are  the  well-known  advocates.' 

It  is  interesting  to  note  that  the  Committee  claimed 
favourable  consideration  for  their  proposals  on  the 
ground  that  they  sought  to  act  as  '  a  channel  of  commu- 
nication between  the  Irish  Government  and  Irish  public 
opinion.'  Little  interest,  they  pointed  out,  had  been 
hitherto  aroused  in  those  economic  problems  for  which 
the  Report  suggested  some  solution.  They  expressed 
the  hope  that  their  action  would  do  something  to 
remedy  this  defect,  especially  in  view  of  the  importance 
which  foreign  Governments  had  found  it  necessary  to 


CONDITIONS    OF    STATE    AID.  223 

attach  to  public  opinion  in  working  out  their  various 
systems  of  State  aid  to  agriculture  and  industries.  At 
the  same  time  the  Committee  emphasied,  in  the  cover- 
ing letter,  their  reliance  on  individual  and  combined 
effort  rather  than  on  State  aid.  They  were  able  to  point 
out  that,  in  asking  for  the  latter,  they  had  throughout 
attached  the  utmost  importance  to  its  being  granted  in 
such  a  manner  as  to  evoke  and  supplement,  and  in  no 
way  be  a  substitute  for  self-help.  If  they  appeared  to 
give  undue  prominence  to  the  capabilities  of  State  initia- 
tion, it  was  to  be  remembered  that  they  were  dealing 
with  economic  conditions  which  had  been  artificially  pro- 
duced, and  which,  therefore,  might  require  exceptional 
treatment  of  a  temporary  nature  to  bring  about  a 
permanent  remedy. 

I  fear  those  most  intimately  connected  with  the  above 
occurrences  will  regard  this  chapter  as  a  very  in- 
adequate description  of  events  so  unprecedented 
and  so  full  of  hope  for  the  future.  My  purpose  is,  how- 
ever, to  limit  myself,  in  dealing  with  the  past,  to  such 
details  as  are  necessary  to  enable  the  reader  to  under- 
stand the  present  facts  of  Irish  life,  and  to  build  upon 
them  his  own  conclusions  as  to  the  most  hopeful  line  of 
future  development  I  shall,  therefore,  pass  rapidly  in 
review  the  events  which  led  to  the  fruition  of  the 
labours  of  the  Recess  Committee. 

Public  opinion  in  favour  of  the  new  proposals 
grew  rapidly.  Before  the  end  of  the  year  (1896) 
a  deputation,  representing  all  the  leading  agricul- 


224  THE   RECESS   COMMITTEE. 

tural  and  industrial  interests  of  the  country,  waited 
upon  the  Irish  Government,  in  order  to  press  upon 
them  the  urgent  need  for  the  new  department.  The 
Lord  Lieutenant,  after  describing  the  gathering  as 
'  one  of  the  most  notable  deputations  which  had  ever 
come  to  lay  its  case  before  the  Irish  Government,'  and 
noting  the  '  remarkable  growth  of  public  opinion '  in 
favour  of  the  policy  they  were  advocating,  expressed 
his  heartfelt  sympathy  with  the  case  which  had  been 
presented,  and  his  earnest  desire — which  was  well 
known — to  proceed  with  legislation  for  the  agricultural 
and  industrial  development  of  the  country  at  the  earliest 
moment.  The  demand  made  upon  the  Government  was, 
argumentatively,  already  irresistible.  But  economic 
agitation  of  this  kind  takes  time  to  acquire  dynamic 
force.  Mr.  Gerald  Balfour  introduced  a  Bill  the 
following  year,  but  it  had  to  be  withdrawn  to  leave  the 
way  clear  for  the  other  great  Irish  measure  which  revo- 
lutionised local  government.  The  unconventional  agita- 
tion went  on  upon  the  original  lines,  appealing  to  that 
latent  public  opinion  which  we  were  striving  to  develop. 
In  1899  another  Bill  was  introduced,  and,  owing  to  its 
masterly  handling  by  the  Chief  Secretary  in  the  House 
of  Commons,  ably  seconded  by  the  strong  support 
given  by  Lord  Cadogan,  who  was  in  the  Cabinet,  it 
became  law. 

I  cannot  conclude  this  chapter  without  a  word  upon 
the  extraordinary  misunderstanding  of  Mr.  Gerald  Bal- 
four's  policy  to  which  the  obscuring  atmosphere  sur- 


MR.    GERALD   BALFOUR.  225 

rounding  all  Irish  questions  gave  rise.  In  one  respect 
that  policy  was  a  new  departure  of  the  utmost  import- 
ance. He  proved  himself  ready  to  take  a  measure  from 
Ireland  and  carry  it  through,  instead  of  insisting  upon 
a  purely  English  scheme  which  he  could  call  his  own. 
These  pre-digested  foods  had  already  done  much  to 
destroy  our  political  digestion,  and  it  was  time  we  were 
given  something  to  grow,  to  cook,  and  to  assimilate  for 
ourselves.  It  will  be  seen,  too,  in  the  next  chapter,  that 
he  had  realised  the  potentiality  for  good  of  the  new 
forces  in  Irish  life  to  which  he  gave  play  in  his  two  great 
linked  Acts — one  of  them  popularising  local  govern- 
ment, and  the  other  creating  a  new  Department  which 
was  to  bring  the  government  and  the  people  together 
in  an  attempt  to  develop  the  resources  of  the  country. 
Yet  his  eminently  sane  and  far-seeing  policy  was  re- 
garded in  many  quarters  as  a  sacrifice  of  Unionist  in- 
terests in  Ireland.  Its  real  effect  was  to  endow  Unionism 
with  a  positive  as  well  as  a  negative  policy.  But  all  re- 
formers know  that  the  further  ahead  they  look,  the 
longer  they  have  to  wait  for  their  justification.  Mean- 
while, we  may  leave  out  of  consideration  the  division  of 
honour  or  of  blame  for  what  has  been  done.  The  only 
matter  of  historic  interest  is  to  arrive  at  a  correct 
measure  of  the  progress  made. 

The  new  movement  had  thus  completed  the  first  and 
second  stages  of  its  mission.  The  idea  of  self-help  had 
become  a  growing  reality,  and  upon  this  foundation  an 
edifice  of  State  aid  had  been  erected.  When  a  Nationalist 

Q 


226  THE   RECESS   COMMITTEE. 

member  met  a  Tory  member  of  the  Recess  Committee 
he  laughed  over  the  success  with  which  they  had 
wheedled  a  measure  of  industrial  Home  Rule  out  of  a 
Unionist  Government.  None  the  less  they  cordially 
agreed  that  the  people  would  rise  to  their  economic  re- 
sponsibility. The  promoters  of  the  movement  had  faith 
that  this  new  departure  in  English  government  would 
be  more  than  justified  by  the  English  test,  and  that  in 
the  new  sphere  of  administration  the  government  would 
be  accorded,  without  prejudice,  of  course,  to  the  ultimate 
views  either  of  Unionists  or  Home  Rulers,  not  only  the 
consent,  but  the  whole-hearted  co-operation  of  the 
governed. 


CHAPTER  IX. 
A  NEW  DEPARTURE  IN  IRISH  ADMINISTRATION. 

To  the  average  English  Member  of  Parliament,  the 
passing  of  an  Act  "  for  establishing  a  Department  of 
Agriculture  and  other  Industries  and  Technical  Instruc- 
tion in  Ireland  and  for  other  purposes  connected  there- 
with," probably  signified  little  more  than  the  removal  of 
another  Irish  grievance,  which  might  not  be  imaginary, 
by  the  concession  to  Ireland  of  an  equivalent  to  the 
Board  of  Agriculture  in  England.  In  reality  the  difference 
between  the  two  institutions  is  as  wide  as  the  difference 
between  the  two  islands.  The  chief  interest  of  the  new 
Department  consists  in  the  free  play  which  it  gives  to 
the  pent-up  forces  of  a  re-awakening  life.  A  new  in- 
stitution is  at  best  but  a  new  opportunity,  but  the  Depart- 
ment starts  with  the  unique  advantage  that,  unlike  most 
Irish  institutions,  it  is  one  which  we  Irishmen  planned 
ourselves  and  for  which  we  have  worked.  For  this 
reason  the  opportunity  is  one  to  which  we  may  hope 
to  rise. 

Before  I  can  convey  any  clear  impression  of  the  part 
which  the  Department  is,  I  believe,  destined  to  play 
on  the  stage  of  Irish  public  life,  it  will  be  necessary  for 
me  to  give  a  somewhat  detailed  description  of  its 
functions  and  constitution.  The  subject  is  perhaps  dull 


228  A  NEW  DEPARTURE  IN  IRISH  ADMINISTRATION. 

and  technical  ;  but  readers  cannot  understand  the  Ire- 
land of  to-day  unless  they  have  in  their  minds  not  only 
an  accurate  conception  of  the  new  moral  forces  in  Irish 
life  and  of  the  movements  to  which  these  forces  have 
given  rise,  but  also  a  knowledge  of  the  administrative 
machinery  and  methods  by  which  the  people  and  the 
Government  are  now,  for  the  first  time  since  the  Union, 
working  together  towards  the  building  up  of  the  Ireland 
of  to-morrow. 

The  Department  consists  of  the  President  (who  is  the 
Chief  Secretary  for  the  time  being)  and  the  Vice- 
President.  The  staff  is  composed  of  a  Secretary,  two 
Assistant  Secretaries  (one  in  respect  of  Agriculture  and 
one  in  respect  of  Technical  Instruction),  as  well  as 
certain  heads  of  Branches  and  a  number  of  inspectors, 
instructors,  officers  and  servants.  The  Recess  Com- 
mittee, it  will  be  remembered,  had  laid  stress  upon  the 
importance  of  having  at  the  head  of  the  Department  a 
new  Minister  who  should  be  directly  responsible  to 
Parliament ;  and,  accordingly,  it  was  arranged  that 
the  Vice-President  should  be  its  direct  Ministerial  head. 
The  Act  provided  that  the  Department  should  be 
assisted  in  its  work  by  a  Council  of  Agriculture  and 
two  Boards,  and  also  by  a  Consultative  Committee 
to  advise  upon  educational  questions.  But  before 
discussing  the  constitution  of  these  bodies,  it  is  neces- 
sary to  explain  the  nature  of  the  task  assigned  to 
the  new  Department  which  began  work  in  April, 
1900.  It  was  created  to  fulfil  two  main  purposes. 


CONSOLIDATION    OF    AUTHORITIES. 

In  the  first  place,  it  was  to  consolidate  in  one  authority 
certain  inter-related  functions  of  government  in  connec- 
tion with  the  business  concerns  of  the  people  which,  until 
the  creation  of  the  Department,  were  scattered  over  some 
half-dozen  Boards,  and  to  place  these  functions  under  the 
direct  control  and  responsibility  of  the  new  Minister. 
The  second  purpose  was  to  provide  means  by  which  the 
Government  and  the  people  might  work  together  in 
developing  the  resources  of  the  country  so  far  as 
State  intervention  could  be  legitimately  applied  to  this 
end. 

To  accomplish  the  first  object,  two  distinct  Govern- 
ment departments,  the  Veterinary  Department  of  the 
Privy  Council  and  the  Office  of  the  Inspectors  of  Irish 
Fisheries,  were  merged  in  the  new  Department.  The 
importance  to  the  economic  life  of  the  country  of  having 
the  laws  for  safeguarding  our  flocks  and  herds  from 
disease,  our  crops  from  insect  pests,  our  farmers  from 
fraud  in  the  supply  of  fertilisers  and  feeding  stuffs  and 
in  the  adulteration  of  foods  (which  compete  with  their 
products),  administered  by  a  Department  generally  con- 
cerned for  the  farming  industry  need  not  be  laboured. 
Similarly,  it  was  well  that  the  laws  for  the  protection  of 
both  sea  and  inland  fisheries  should  be  administered  by 
the  authority  whose  function  it  was  to  develop  these 
industries.  There  was  also  transferred  from  South 
Kensington  the  administration  of  the  Science  and 
Arts  grants  and  the  grant  in  aid  of  technical  instruction, 
together  with  the  contiol  of  several  national  institutions, 


23O  A  NEW   DEPARTURE  IN  IRISH  ADMINISTRATION. 

the  most  important  being  the  Royal  College  of  Science 
and  the  Metropolitan  School  of  Art ;  for  they,  in  a 
sense,  would  stand  at  the  head  of  much  of  the  new 
work  which  would  be  required  for  the  contem- 
plated agricultural  and  industrial  developments.  The 
Albert  Institute  at  Glasnevin  and  the  Munster  Institute 
in  Cork,  both  institutions  for  teaching  practical  agricul- 
ture, were,  as  a  matter  of  course,  handed  over  from  the 
Board  of  National  Education. 

The  desirability  of  bringing  order  and  simplicity  into 
these  branches  of  administration,  where  co-related  action 
was  not  provided  for  before,  was  obvious.  A  few 
years  ago,  to  take  a  somewhat  extreme  case,  when  a 
virulent  attack  of  potato  disease  broke  out  which  de- 
manded prompt  and  active  Governmental  intervention, 
the  task  of  instructing  farmers  how  to  spray  their 
potatoes  was  shared  by  no  fewer  than  six  official  or  semi- 
official bodies.  The  consolidation  of  administration 
effected  by  the  Act,  in  addition  to  being  a  real  step 
towards  efficiency  and  economy,  relieved  the  Chief 
Secretary  of  an  immense  amount  of  detailed  work  to 
which  he  could  not  possibly  give  adequate  personal 
attention,  and  made  it  possible  for  him  to  devote  * 
greater  share  of  his  time  to  the  larger  problems  of 
general  Irish  legislation  and  finance. 

The  newly  created  powers  of  the  Department,  which 
were  added  to  and  co-ordinated  with  the  various  pre- 
existing functions  of  the  several  departments  \\hose 
consolidation  I  have  mentioned  above,  fairly  fulfilled  the 


FINANCIAL   RESOURCES.  23! 

recommendation  of  the  Recess  Committee  that  the 
Department  should  have  '  a  wide  reference  and  a  free 
hand.'  These  powers  include  the  aiding,  improving,  and 
developing  of  agriculture  in  all  its  branches  ;  horticulture, 
forestry,  home  and  cottage  industries ;  sea  and  inland 
fisheries ;  the  aiding  and  facilitating  of  the  transit  of 
produce ;  and  the  organisation  of  a  system  of  education 
in  science  and  art,  and  in  technology  as  applied  to  these 
various  subjects.  The  provision  of  technical  instruction 
suitable  to  the  needs  of  the  few  manufacturing  centres  in 
Ireland  was  included,  but  need  not  be  dealt  with  in  any 
detail  in  these  pages,  since,  as  I  have  said  before,  the 
questions  connected  therewith  are  more  or  less  common 
to  all  such  centres  and  have  no  specially  Irish  signifi- 
cance. 

For  all  the  administrative  functions  transferred  to 
the  new  Department  moneys  are,  as  before,  annually 
voted  by  Parliament.  Towards  the  fulfilment  of  the 
second  purpose  mentioned  above — the  development  of 
the  resources  of  the  country  upon  the  principles  of  the 
Recess  Committee — an  annual  income  of  ;£  166,000, 
which  was  derived  in  about  equal  parts  from  Irish  and 
imperial  sources,  and  is  called  the  Department's  Endow- 
ment, together  with  a  capital  sum  of  about  £200,000, 
were  provided. 

It  will  be  seen  that  a  very  wide  sphere  of  usefulness 
was  thus  opened  out  for  the  new  Department  in  two 
distinct  ways.  The  consolidation,  under  one  authority, 
of  many  scattered  but  co-related  functions  was  clearly 


232  A  NEW  DEPARTURE  IN  IRISH  ADMINISTRATION. 

a  move  in  the  right  direction.  Upon  this  part  of  its  re- 
commendations the  Recess  Committee  had  no  difficulty 
in  coming  to  a  quick  decision.  But  the  real  importance 
of  their  Report  lay  in  the  direction  of  the  new  work 
which  was  to  be  assigned  to  the  Department.  Under 
the  new  order  of  things,  if  the  Department,  acting  with 
as  well  as  for  the  people,  succeeds  in  doing  well  what 
legitimately  may  and  ought  to  be  done  by  the  Govern- 
ment towards  the  development  of  the  resources  of  the 
country,  and,  at  the  same  time,  as  far  as  possible  confines 
its  interference  to  helping  the  Irish  people  to  help  them- 
selves, a  wholly  new  spirit  will  be  imported  into  the  in- 
dustrial life  of  the  nation. 

The  very  nature  of  the  work  which  the  Department 
was  called  into  existence  to  accomplish  made  it  abso- 
lutely essential  that  it  should  keep  in  touch  with  the 
classes  whom  its  work  would  most  immediately  affect, 
and  without  whose  active  co-operation  no  lasting  good 
could  be  achieved.  The  machinery  for  this  purpose  was 
provided  by  the  establishment  of  a  Council  of  Agriculture 
and  two  Boards,  one  of  the  latter  being  concerned  with 
agriculture,  rural  industries,  and  inland  fisheries,  the 
other  with  technical  instruction.  These  representative 
bodies,  whose  constitution  is  interesting  as  a  new 
departure  in  administration,  were  adapted  from  similar 
continental  councils  which  have  been  found  by  experi- 
ence, in  those  foreign  countries  which  are  Ireland's 
economic  rivals,  to  be  the  most  valuable  of  all  means 
whereby  the  administration  keeps  in  touch  with  the 


POPULAR    REPRESENTATION.  233 

agricultural  and  industrial    classes,  and    becomes    truly 
responsive  to  their  needs  and  wishes. 

The  Council  of  Agriculture  consists  of  two  members 
appointed  by  each  County  Council  (Cork  being  regarded 
as  two  counties  and  returning  four  members),  making  in 
all  sixty-eight  persons.  The  Department  also  appoint  one 
half  this  number  of  persons,  observing  in  their  nomina- 
tion the  same  provincial  proportions  as  obtained  in  the 
appointments  by  the  popular  bodies.  This  adds  thirty- 
four  members,  and  makes  in  all  one  hundred  and  two 
Councillors,  in  addition  to  the  President  and  Vice- 
President  of  the  Department,  who  are  ex-officio  members. 
Thus,  if  all  the  members  attended  a  Council  meeting,  the 
Vice-President  would  find  himself  presiding  over  a  body 
as  truly  representative  of  the  interests  concerned  as 
could  be  brought  together,  consisting,  by  a  strange  coin- 
cidence, of  exactly  the  same  number  as  the  Irish  repre- 
sentatives in  Parliament. 

The  Council,  which  is  appointed  for  a  term  of  three 
years,  the  first  term  dating  from  the  1st  April,  1900,  has 
a  two-fold  function.  It  is,  in  the  first  place,  a  deliberative 
assembly  which  must  be  convened  by  the  Department  at 
least  once  a  year.  The  domain  over  which  its  delibera- 
tions may  travel  is  certainly  not  restricted,  as  the  Act 
defines  its  function  as  that  of  "discussing  matters  of 
public  interest  in  connection  with  any  of  the  purposes 
of  this  Act."  The  view  Mr.  Gerald  Balfour  took 
was  that  nothing  but  the  new  spirit  he  laboured  to 
evoke  would  make  his  machine  work.  Although  he 


234  A  NEW   DEPARTURE  IN  IRISH  ADMINISTRATION. 

gave  the  Vice-President  statutory  powers  to  make 
rules  for  the  proper  ordering  of  the  Council  debates, 
I  have  been  well  content  to  rely  upon  the  usual 
privileges  of  a  chairman.  I  have  estimated  beforehand 
the  time  required  for  the  discussion  of  matters  of  inquiry  : 
the  speakers  have  condensed  their  speeches  accordingly, 
the  business  has  been  expeditiously  transacted,  and  in  the 
mere  exchange  of  ideas  invaluable  assistance  has  been 
given  to  the  Department. 

The  second  function  of  the  Council  is  exercised  only 
at  its  first  meeting,  and  consequently  but  once  in  three 
years.  At  this  first  triennial  meeting  it  becomes  an 
Electoral  College.  It  divides  itself  into  four  Provincial 
Committees,  each  of  which  elects  two  members  to  repre- 
sent its  province  on  the  Agricultural  Board  and  one 
member  to  represent  it  on  the  Board  of  Technical  In- 
struction. The  Agricultural  Board,  which  controls  a  sum 
of  over  £100,000  a  year,  consists  of  twelve  members, 
and  as  eight  out  of  the  twelve  are  elected  by  the  four 
Provincial  Committees — the  remaining  four  being  ap- 
pointed by  the  Department,  one  from  each  province — 
it  will  be  seen  that  the  Council  of  Agriculture  exercises 
an  influence  upon  the  administration  commensurate 
with  its  own  representative  character.  The  Board  of 
Technical  Instruction,  consisting  of  twenty-one  members, 
together  with  the  President  and  Vice-President  of  the 
Department,  has  a  less  simple  constitution,  owing  to  the 
fact  that  it  is  concerned  with  the  more  complex  life  of 
the  urban  districts  of  the  country.  As  I  have  said,  the 


THE  BOARDS.  235 

Council  of  Agriculture  elects  only  four  members — one 
for  each  province.  The  Department  appoints  four 
others ;  each  of  the  County  Boroughs  of  Dublin  and 
Belfast  appoints  three  members ;  the  remaining  four 
County  Boroughs  appoint  one  member  each ;  a  joint 
Committee  of  the  Councils  of  the  large  urban  districts 
surrounding  Dublin  appoint  one  member ;  one  member 
is  appointed  by  the  Commissioners  of  National  Educa- 
tion, and  one  member  by  the  Intermediate  Board  of 
Education. 

The  two  Boards  have  to  advise  upon  all  matters  sub- 
mitted to  them  by  the  Department  in  connection,  in  the 
one  case,  with  agriculture  and  other  rural  industries  and 
inland  fisheries,  and,  in  the  other  case,  in  connection  with 
Technical  Instruction.  The  advisory  powers  of  the 
Boards  are  very  real,  for  the  expenditure  of  all  moneys 
out  of  the  Endowment  funds  is  subject  to  their  concur- 
rence. Hence,  while  they  have  not  specific  administra- 
tive powers  and  apparently  have  only  the  right  of  veto,  it 
is  obvious  that,  if  they  wished,  they  might  largely  force 
their  own  views  upon  the  Department  by  refusing  to 
sanction  the  expenditure  of  money  upon  any  of  the 
Department's  proposals,  until  these  were  so  modified  as 
practically  to  be  their  own  proposals.  It  is,  therefore, 
clear  that  the  machinery  can  only  work  harmoniously 
and  efficiently  so  long  as  it  is  moved  by  a  right  spirit. 
Above  all  it  is  necessary  that  the  central  administrative 
body  should  gain  such  a  measure  of  popular  confidence 
as  to  enable  it,  without  loss  of  influence,  to  resist  pro- 


236  A  NEW   DEPARTURE  IN  IRISH  ADMINISTRATION. 

posals  for  expenditure  upon  schemes  which  might  ensure 
great  popularity  at  the  moment,  but  would  do  permanent 
harm  to  the  industrial  character  we  are  all  trying  to  build 
up.  I  need  not  fear  contradiction  at  the  hands  of  a  single 
member  of  either  Board  when  I  say  that  up  to  the  pre- 
sent perfect  harmony  has  reigned  throughout.  The 
utmost  consideration  has  been  shown  by  the  Boards  for 
the  difficulties  which  the  Department  have  to  overcome  ; 
and  I  think  I  may  add  that  due  regard  has  been  paid  by 
the  administrative  authority  to  the  representative  char- 
acter and  the  legitimate  wishes  of  the  bodies  which 
advise  and  largely  control  it. 

The  other  statutory  body  attached  to  the  Department 
has  a  significance  and  potential  importance  in  strange 
contrast  to  the  humble  place  it  occupies  in  the  statute 
book.  The  Agriculture  and  Technical  Instruction 
(Ireland)  Act,  1899,  has,  like  many  other  Acts,  a  part 
entitled  '  Miscellaneous,'  in  which  the  draughtsman's 
skill  has  attended  to  multifarious  practical  details,  and 
made  provision  for  all  manner  of  contingencies,  many  of 
which  the  layman  might  never  have  thought  of  or  fore- 
seen. Travelling  expenses  for  Council,  Boards,  and 
Committees,  casual  vacancies  thereon,  a  short  title  for 
the  Act,  and  a  seal  for  the  Department,  definitions,  which 
show  how  little  we  know  of  our  own  language,  and  a 
host  of  kindred  matters  are  included.  In  this  miscellany 
appears  the  following  little  clause  : — 

For  the  purpose  of  co-ordLnating  educational  administration 


THE  CONSULTATIVE  COMMITTEE  OF  EDUCATION.       237 

there  shall  be  established  a  Consultative  Committee  con- 
sisting of  the  following  members  : — 

(a,)  The  Vice-President  of  the  Department,  who  shall  be 
chairman  thereof  ; 

(b.}  One  person  to  be  appointed  by  the  Commissioners 
of  National  Education  ; 

(c.)  One  person  to  be  appointed  by  the  Intermediate 
Education  Board  ; 

(d.)  One  person  to  be  appointed  by  the  Agricultural 
Board  ;  and 

(e.)  One  person  to  be  appointed  by  the  Board  of  Tech- 
nical Instruction. 

Now  the  real  value  of  this  clause,  and  in  this  I  think  it 
shows  a  consumate  statesmanship,  lies  not  in  what  it 
says,  but  in  what  it  suggests.  The  Committee,  it  will  be 
observed,  has  an  immensely  important  function,  but  no 
power  beyond  such  authority  as  its  representative  char- 
acter may  afford.  Any  attempt  to  deal  with  a  large 
educational  problem  by  a  clause  in  a  measure  of  this  kind 
would  have  alarmed  the  whole  force  of  unco-ordinated 
pedagogy,  and  perhaps  have  wrecked  the  Bill.  The 
clause  as  it  stands  is  in  harmony  with  the  whole  spirit  of 
the  new  movement  and  of  the  legislation  provided  for  its 
advancement.  The  Committee  may  be  very  useful  in 
suggesting  improvements  in  educational  administration 
which  will  prevent  unnecessary  overlapping  and  lead  to 
co-operation  between  the  systems  concerned.  Indeed  it 
has  already  made  suggestions  of  far-reaching  importance, 
which  have  been  acted  upon  by  the  educational  authori- 
ties represented  upon  it.  As  I  have  said  in  an  earlier 


238  A  NEW   DEPARTURE  IN  IRISH  ADMINISTRATION. 

chapter  when  discussing  Irish  education  from  the  practi- 
cal point  of  view,  I  have  great  faith  in  the  efficacy  of 
the  economic  factor  in  educational  controversy,  and  this 
Committee  is  certainly  in  a  position  to  watch  and  pro- 
nounce on  any  defects  in  our  educational  system  which 
the  new  efforts  to  deal  practically  with  our  industrial  and 
commercial  problems  may  disclose. 

There  remains  to  be  explained  only  one  feature  of  the 
new  administrative  machinery,  and  it  is  a  very  important 
one.  The  Recess  Committee  had  recommended  the 
adaptation  to  Ireland  of  a  type  of  central  institution  which 
it  had  found  in  successful  operation  on  the  Continent 
wherever  it  had  pursued  its  investigations.  So  far  as 
schemes  applicable  to  the  whole  country  were  concerned, 
the  central  Department,  assuming  that  it  gained  the  con- 
fidence of  the  Council  and  Boards,  might  easily  justify 
its  existence.  But  the  greater  part  of  its  work,  the 
Recess  Committee  saw,  would  relate  to  special  localities, 
and  could  not  succeed  without  the  cordial  co-operation 
of  the  people  immediately  concerned.  This  fact  brought 
Mr.  Gerald  Balfour  face  to  face  with  a  problem  which 
the  Recess  Committee  could  not  solve  in  its  day,  because, 
when  it  sat,  there  still  existed  the  old  grand  jury  system, 
though  its  early  abolition  had  been  promised.  It  was 
extremely  fortunate  that  to  the  same  minister  fell  the 
task  of  framing  both  the  Act  of  1898,  which  revolution- 
ised local  government,  and  the  Act  of  1899,  now  under 
review.  The  success  with  which  these  two  Acts  were 
linked  together  by  the  provisions  of  the  latter  forms  an 


LOCAL    GOVERNMENT   AND   THE    ACT.  239 

interesting  lesson  in  constructive  statesmanship.  Time 
will,  I  believe,  thoroughly  discredit  the  hostile  criticism 
which  withheld  its  due  mead  of  praise  from  the  most 
fruitful  policy  which  any  administration  had  up  to  that 
time  ever  devised  for  the  better  government  of  Ireland. 
The  local  authorities  created  by  the  Act  of  1898  pro- 
vided the  machinery  for  enabling  the  representatives  of 
the  people  to  decide  themselves,  to  a  large  extent,  upon 
the  nature  of  the  particular  measures  to  be  adopted  in 
each  locality  and  to  carry  out  the  schemes  when  formu- 
lated. The  Act  creating  the  new  Department  em- 
powered the  council  of  any  county  or  of  any  urban  dis- 
trict, or  any  two  or  more  public  bodies  jointly,  to  appoint 
committees,  composed  partly  of  members  of  the  local 
bodies  and  partly  of  co-opted  persons,  for  the  purpose  of 
carrying  out  such  of  the  Department's  schemes  as  are  of 
local,  and  not  of  general  importance.  True  to  the  under- 
lying principle  of  the  new  movement — the  principle  of 
self-reliance  and  local  effort — the  Act  lays  it  down  that 
'  the  Department  shall  not,  in  the  absence  of  any  special 
considerations,  apply  or  approve  of  the  application  of 
money  ...  to  schemes  in  respect  of  which  aid  is  not 
given  out  of  money  provided  by  local  authorities  or  from 
other  local  sources.'  To  meet  this  requirement  the  local 
authorities  are  given  the  power  of  raising  a  limited  rate 
for  the  purposes  of  the  Act.  By  these  two  simple  provi- 
sions for  local  administration  and  local  combination,  the 
people  of  each  district  were  made  voluntarily  contributory 
both  in  effort  and  in  money,  towards  the  new  practical 


24O  A  NEW  DEPARTURE  IN  IRISH  ADMINISTRATION. 

developments,  and  given  an  interest  in,  and  responsibility 
for  their  success.     It  was  of  the  utmost  importance  that 
these  new  local  authorities  should  be  practically  inter- 
ested in  the  business  concerns  of  the  country  which 
the   Department  was   to   serve.       Mr.    Gerald   Balfour 
himself,  in  introducing  the  Local  Government  Bill,  had 
shown  that  he  was  under  no  illusion  as  to  the  possible 
disappointment  to  which  his  great  democratic  experi- 
ment might  at  first  give  rise.     He  anticipated  that  it 
would  "work  through  failure  to  success."     To  put  it 
plainly,  the  new  bodies  might  devote  a  great  deal  of 
attention  to  politics  and  very  little  to  business.     I  am 
told  by  those  best  qualified  to  form  an  opinion  (some  of 
my  informants  having  been,  to  say  the  least,  sceptical 
as  to  the  wisdom  of  the  experiment),  that  notwithstand- 
ing some  extravagances  in  particular  instances,  it  can 
already  be  stated  positively  that  local  government  in 
Ireland,  taken  as  a  whole,  has  not  suffered  in  efficiency 
by  the  revolution  which  it  has  undergone.     This  is  the 
opinion  of  officials  of  the  Local  Government  Board,*  and 
refers  mainly  to  the  transaction  of  the  fiscal  business  of 
the  new  local  authorities.  From  a  different  point  of  obser- 
vation I  shall  presently  bear  witness  to  a  display  of  admin- 
istrative capacity  on   the  part  of  the  many  statutory 
committees,  appointed  by  County,  Borough,  and  District 
Councils  to  co-operate  with  the  Department,  which  is 
most  creditable  to  the  thought  and  feeling  of  the  people. 
It  would  be  quite  unfair  to  a  large  body  of  farmers  in 
*  See  Report  of  the  Local  Government  Board,  1901-2. 


CO-OPERATION  AND  THE  STATE.  241 

Ireland  if,  in  describing  the  administrative  machinery  for 
carrying  out  an  economic  policy  based  upon  self-help 
and  dependent  for  its  success  upon  the  conciliatory  spirit 
abroad  in  the  country,  I  were  to  ignore  the  part  played  by 
the  large  number  of  co-operative  associations,  the  organ- 
isation, work  and  multiplication  of  which  have  been 
described  in  a  former  chapter.  The  Recess  Committee, 
in  their  enquiries,  found  that,  in  the  countries  whose 
competition  Ireland  feels  most  keenly,  Departments  of 
Agriculture  had  come  to  recognise  it  as  an  axiom  of  their 
policy  that  without  organisation  for  economic  purposes 
amongst  the  agricultural  classes,  State  aid  to  agriculture 
must  be  largely  ineffectual,  and  even  mischievous.  Such 
Departments  devote  a  considerable  part  of  their  efforts 
to  promoting  agricultural  organisation.  Short  a  time  as 
this  Department  has  been  in  existence  it  has  had  some 
striking  evidence  of  the  justice  of  these  views.  As  will 
be  seen  from  the  First  Annual  Report  of  the  Department, 
it  was  only  where  the  farmers  were  organised  in  properly 
representative  societies  that  many  of  the  lessons  the 
Department  had  to  teach  could  effectually  reach  the 
farming  classes,  or  that  many  of  the  agricultural  experi- 
ments intended  for  their  guidance  could  be  profitably 
carried  out.  Although  these  experiment  schemes  were 
issued  to  the  County  Councils  and  the  agricultural  public 
generally,  it  was  only  the  farmers  organised  in  societies 
who  were  really  in  a  position  to  take  part  in  them.  Some 
of  these  experiments,  indeed,  could  not  be  carried  out  at 
all  except  through  such  societies. 


242  A  NEW  DEPARTURE  IN  IRISH  ADMINISTRATION. 

Both  for  the  sake  of  efficiency  in  its  educational  work, 
and  of  economy  in  administration,  the  Department  would 
be  obliged  to  lay  stress  on  the  value  of  organisation.* 
But  there  are  other  reasons  for  its  doing  so:  industrial, 
moral,  and  social  In  an  able  critique  upon  Bodley's  France 
Madame  Darmesteter,  writing  in  the  Contemporary 
Review,  July,  1898,  points  out  that  even  so  well  informed 
an  observer  of  French  life  as  the  author  of  that  remark- 
able book  failed  to  appreciate  the  steadying  influence 
exercised  upon  the  French  body  politic  by  the  network 
of  voluntary  associations,  the  syndicats  agricoles,  which 
are  the  analogues  and,  to  some  extent,  the  prototypes, 
in  France  of  our  agricultural  societies  in  Ireland.  The 
late  Mr.  Hanbury,  during  his  too  brief  career  as  President 
of  the  Board  of  Agriculture,  frequently  dwelt  upon 
the  importance  of  organising  similar  associations  in  Eng- 
land as  a  necessary  step  in  the  development  of  the  new 
agricultural  policy  which  he  foreshadowed.  His  successor, 
Lord  Onslow,  has  fully  endorsed  his  views,  and  in  his 
speeches  is  to  be  found  the  same  appreciation  of  the  ex- 
emplary self-reliance  of  the  Irish  farmers.  I  have  already 
referred  to  the  keen  interest  which  both  agricultural 
reformers  and  English  and  Welsh  County  Councils  have 
been  taking  in  the  unexpectedly  progressive  efforts  of 
the  Irish  farmers  to  reorganise  their  industry  and  place 
themselves  in  a  position  to  take  advantage  of  State 
assistance.  I  believe  that  our  farmers  are  going  to  the 

*  See    Annual  General  Report  of  the  Department   1900-1901, 
PP-  25-27- 


THE    CONGESTED    DISTRICTS    BOARD.  243 

root  of  things,  and  that  due  weight  should  be  given  to  the 
silent  force  of  organised  self-help  by  those  who  would 
estimate  the  degree  in  which  the  aims  and  sanguine 
anticipations  of  the  new  movement  in  Ireland  are  likely 
to  be  realised. 

And  it  is  not  only  for  its  foundation  upon  self-reliance 
that  the  latest  development  of  Irish  Government  will 
have  a  living  interest  for  economists  and  students  of 
political  philosophy.  They  will  see  in  the  facts  under 
review  a  rapid  and  altogether  healthy  evolution  of  the 
Irish  policy  so  honourably  associated  with  the  name  of 
Mr.  Arthur  Balfour.  His  Chief  Secretaryship,  when 
all  its  storm  and  stress  have  been  forgotten,  will 
be  remembered  for  the  opening  up  of  the  desolate, 
poverty-stricken  western  seaboard  by  light  railways, 
and  for  the  creation  of  the  Congested  Districts  Board. 
The  latter  institution  has  gained  so  wide  and,  as 
I  think,  well  merited  popularity,  that  many  thought 
its  extension  to  other  parts  of  Ireland  would  have 
been  a  simpler  and  safer  method  of  procedure 
than  that  actually  recommended  by  the  Recess  Com- 
mittee, and  adopted  by  Mr.  Gerald  Balfour.  The  Land 
Act  of  1891  applied  a  treatment  to  the  problem  of  the 
congested  districts — a  problem  of  economic  depression 
and  industrial  backwardness,  differing  rather  in  degree 
than  in  kind  from  the  economic  problem  of  the  greater 
part  of  rural  Ireland — as  simple  as  it  was  new.  A  large 
capital  sum  of  Irish  moneys  was  handed  over  to  an 
unpaid  commission  consisting  of  Irishmen  who  were 


244  A  NEW  DEPARTURE  IN  IRISH  ADMINISTRATION. 

acquainted  with  the  local  circumstances,  and  who  were  in 
a  position  to  give  their  services  to  a  public  philanthropic 
purpose.  They  were  given  the  widest  discretion  in  the 
expenditure  of  the  interest  of  this  capital  sum,  and  from 
time  to  time  their  income  has  been  augmented  from 
annually  voted  moneys.  They  were  restricted  only  to 
measures  calculated  permanently  to  improve  the  condi- 
tion of  the  people,  as  distinct  from  measures  affording 
temporary  relief. 

I  agree  with  those  who  hold  that  Mr.  Arthur  Balfour's 
plan  was  the  best  that  could  be  adopted  at  the  moment. 
But  events  have  marched  rapidly  since  1891,  and  wholly 
new  possibilities  in  the  sphere  of  Irish  economic  legisla- 
tion and  administration  have  been  revealed.  A  new  Irish 
mind  has  now  to  be  taken  into  account,  and  to  be  made 
part  of  any  ameliorative  Irish  policy.  Hence  it  was  not 
only  possible,  but  desirable,  to  administer  State  help 
more  democratically  in  1899  than  in  1891.  The  policy 
of  the  Congested  Districts  Board  was  a  notable  advance 
upon  the  inaction  of  the  State  in  the  pre-famine  times, 
and  upon  the  system  of  doles  and  somewhat  objectless 
relief  works  of  the  latter  half  of  the  nineteenth  century ; 
but  the  policy  of  the  new  departure  now  under  review 
was  no  less  notable  a  departure  from  the  paternalism 
of  the  Congested  Districts  Board.  When  that  body  was 
called  into  existence  it  was  tkought  necessary  to  rely 
on  persons  nominated  by  the  Government.  When  the 
Department  was  created  eight  years  later  it  was  found 
possible,  owing  to  the  broadening  of  the  basis  of  local 


RELATIONS    OF    THE    TWO    DEPARTMENTS.  245 

government  and  to  the  moral  and  social  effect  of  the 
new  movement,  to  rely  largely  on  the  advice  and  assist- 
ance of  persons  selected  by  the  people  themselves. 

The  two  departments  are  in  constant  consultation  as 
to  the  co-ordination  of  their  work,  so  as  to  avoid  conflict 
of  administrative  system  and  sociological  principle  in 
adjoining  districts ;  and  much  has  already  been  done 
in  this  direction.  My  own  experience  has  not  only  made 
me  a  firm  believer  in  the  principle  of  self-help,  but  I 
carry  my  belief  to  the  extreme  length  of  holding  that 
the  poorer  a  community  is  the  more  essential  is  it  to 
throw  it  as  much  as  possible  on  its  own  resources,  in  order 
to  develop  self-reliance.  I  recognise,  however,  the  unde- 
^sirability  of  too  sudden  changes  of  system  in  these 
matters.  Meanwhile,  I  may  add  in  this  connection  that 
the  Wyndham  Land  Act  enormously  increases  the  im- 
portance of  the  Congested  Districts  Board  in  regard  to  its 
main  function — that  of  dealing  directly  with  congestion, 
by  the  purchase  and  resettlement  of  estates,  the  migra- 
tion of  families,  and  the  enlargement  of  holdings.* 

I  have  now  said  enough  about  the  aims  and  objects, 
the  constitution  and  powers,  and  the  relations  with  other 
Governmental  institutions,  of  the  new  Department,  to 
enable  the  reader  to  form  a  fairly  accurate  estimate  of 
its  general  character,  scope  and  purpose.  From  what  it 
is  I  shall  pass  in  the  next  chapter  to  what  it  does,  and 
there  I  must  describe  its  everyday  work  in  some  detail. 
But  I  wish  I  could  also  give  the  reader  an  adequate 

*    Cf.  ante,  pp.  46-49. 


246  A  NEW  DEPARTURE  IN  IRISH  ADMINISTRATION. 

picture   of  the   surge   of   activities  raised  by  the   first 
plunge  of  the  Department  into  Irish  life  and  thought. 
After  a  time  the   torrent  of  business  made   channels 
for  itself  and  went  on  in  a  more  orderly  fashion ;  prac- 
tical   ideas    and    promising    openings   were    sifted    out 
at  an  early  stage  of  their  approach  to  the  Department 
from  those  which  were  neither  one  nor  the  other ;  time 
was  economised,  work  distributed,  and  the  functions  of 
demand  and  supply  in  relation  to  the  Department's  work 
throughout  Ireland  were  brought  into  proper  adjustment 
with  each  other.     Yet,  even  at  first,  to  a  sympathetic  and 
understanding  view,  the  waste    of    time    and  thought 
involved  in  dealing  with  impossible  projects  and  dispel- 
ling false  hopes  was  compensated  for  by  the  evidence 
forced  upon  us  that  the  Irish  people  had  no  notion  of 
regarding  the  Department  as  an  alien  institution  with 
which  they  need  concern  themselves  but  little,  however 
much  it  might  concern  itself  with  them.     They  were 
never  for  a  moment  in  doubt  as  to  its  real  meaning  and 
purpose.     They  meant  to  make  it  their  own  and  to  utilise 
it  in  the  uplifting  of  their  country.     No  description  of 
the  machinery  of  the  institution  could  explain  the  real 
place  which  it  took  in  the  life  of  the  country  from  the 
very  beginning.     But  perhaps  it  may  give  the  reader  a 
more  living  interest  in  this  part  of  the  story,  and  a  more 
living  picture  of  the  situation,  if  I  try  to  convey  to  his 
mind  some  of  the  impressions  left  on  my  own,  by  my  ex- 
periences during  the  period  immediately  following  the  pro- 
jection of  this  new  phenomenon  into  Irish  consciousness. 


THE    FIRST   PLUNGE.  247 

When  in  Upper  Merrion-street,  Dublin,  opposite  to  the 
Land  Commission,  big  brass  plates  appeared  upon  the 
doors  of  a  row  of  houses  announcing  that  there  was 
domiciled  the  Department  of  Agriculture  and  Technical 
Instruction,  the  average  man  in  the  street  might  have 
been  expected  to  murmur,  '  Another  Castle  Board,'  and 
pass  on.     It  was  not  long,  however,  before  our  visiting 
list  became  somewhat  embarrassing.     We  have  since  got 
down,  as  I  have  said,  to  a  more  humdrum,  though  no 
less  interesting,  official  life  inside  the  Department.     But 
let  the  reader  imagine  himself  to  have  been  concealed 
behind  a  screen  in  my  office  on  a  day  when  some  event, 
like  the  Dublin  Horse  Show,  brought  crowds  in  from  the 
country  to  the  Irish  capital.     Such  an  experience  would 
certainly  have  given  him  a  new  understanding  of  some 
then  neglected  men  and  things.      While  I  was  opening 
the  morning's  letters  and  dealing  with  "  Files  "  marked 
"urgent,"    he    would    see    nothing  to  distinguish    my 
day's    work    from    that    of    other    ministers,    who    act 
as  a  link  between  the  permanent  officials  of  a  spend- 
ing   Department    and    the    Government    of    the    day. 
But  presently  a  stream  of  callers  would  set  in,  and  he 
would  begin  to  realise  that  the  minister  is,  in  this  case, 
a  human  link  of  another  kind — a  link  between  the  people 
and  the  Government.    A  courteous  and  discreet  Private 
Secretary,  having  attended  to  those  who  have  come  to 
the  wrong  department,  and  to  those  who  are  satisfied 
with  an  interview  with    him    or  with   the    officer  who 
would    have    to    attend   to    their   particular    business, 


248  A  NEW   DEPARTUHE  IN  IRISH  ADMINISTRATION. 

brings  into  my  not  august  presence  a  procession  of 
all  sorts  and  conditions  of  men.  Some  know  me 
personally,  some  bring  letters  of  introduction  or  want 
to  see  me  on  questions  of  policy.  Others — for 
these  the  human  link  is  most  needed — must  see  the 
ultimate  source  of  responsibility,  which,  in  Ireland, 
whether  it  be  head  of  a  family  or  of  a  Department,  is 
reduced  from  the  abstract  to  the  concrete  by  the  preg- 
nant pronoun  '  himself.'  I  cannot  reveal  confidences,  but 
T  may  give  a  few  typical  instances  of,  let  us  say,  callers 
who  might  have  called. 

First  comes  a  visitor,  who  turns  out  to  be  a  '  man 
with  an  idea,'  just  home  from  an  unpronounce- 
able address  in  Scandinavia.  He  has  come  to  tell  me 
that  we  have  in  Ireland  a  perfect  gold  mine,  if  we 
only  knew  it — in  extent  never  was  there  such  a  gold  field 
— no  illusory  pockets — good  payable  stuff  in  sight  for 
centuries  to  come — and  so  on  for  five  precious  minutes, 
which  seem  like  half  a  day,  during  which  I  have  realised 
that  he  is  an  inventor,  and  that  it  is  no  good  asking  him 
to  come  to  the  point.  But  I  keep  my  eye  riveted  on  his 
leather  bag  which  is  filled  to  bursting  point,  and  manifest 
an  intelligent  interest  and  burning  curiosity.  The  sugges- 
tion works,  and  out  of  the  bag  come  black  bars  and  balls, 
samples  of  fabrics  ranging  from  sack-cloth  to  fine  linen, 
buttons,  combs,  papers  for  packing  and  for  polite  corres- 
pondence, bottles  of  queer  black  fluid,  and  a  host  of 
other  miscellaneous  wares.  I  realise  that  the  particular 
solution  of  the  Irish  Question  which  is  about  to  be  un- 


CALLERS  WHO  MIGHT  HAVE  CALLED.         249 

folded  is  the  utilisation  of  our  bogs.  Well,  this  is  one  of 
the  problems  with  which  we  have  to  deal.  It  is  physi- 
cally possible  to  make  almost  anything  out  of  this  Irish 
asset,  from  moss  litter  to  billiard  balls,  and  though  one 
would  not  think  it,  aeons  of  energy  have  been  stored 
in  these  inert  looking  wastes  by  the  apparently  unsympa- 
thetic sun,  energy  which  some  think  may,  before 
long,  be  converted  into  electricity  to  work  all  the  smoke- 
less factories  which  the  rising  generation  are  to  see 
Indeed,  the  vista  of  possibilities  is  endless,  the  only 
serious  problem  that  remains  to  be  solved  being  '  how  to 
make  it  pay,'  and  upon  that  aspect  of  the  question,  un- 
happily, my  visitor  had  no  light  to  throw. 

The  next  visitor,  who  brings  with  him  a  son  and  a 
daughter,  is  himself  the  product  of  an  Irish  bog  in  the 
wildest  of  the  wilds.  His  Parish  Priest  had  sent  him 
to  me.  A  little  awkwardness,  which  is  soon  dispelled, 
and  the  point  is  reached.  This  fine  specimen  of 
the  '  bone  and  sinew '  has  had  a  hard  struggle  to 
bring  up  his  '  long  family ' ;  but,  with  a  capable  wife, 
who  makes  the  most  of  the  res  an  gust  a  domi — of  the  pig, 
the  poultry,  and  even  of  the  butter  from  the  little  black 
cows  on  the  mountain — he  has  risen  to  the  extent  of  his 
opportunities.  The  children  are  all  doing  something. 
Lace  and  crochet  come  out  of  the  cabin,  the  yarn  from 
the  wool  of  the  '  mountainy '  sheep,  carded  and  spun  at 
home,  is  feeding  the  latest  type  of  hosiery  knitting 
machine  and  the  hereditary  handloom.  The  story  of  this 
man's  life  which  was  written  to  me  by  the  priest  cannot 


25O  A  NEW  DEPARTURE  IN  IRISH  ADMINISTRATION. 

find  space  here.  The  immediate  object  of  his  visit  is  to 
get  his  eldest  daughter  trained  as  a  poultry  instructress 
to  take  part  in  some  of  the  '  County  Schemes '  under  the 
Department,  and  to  obtain  for  his  eldest  son,  who  has 
distinguished  himself  under  the  tuition  of  the  Christian 
Brothers,  a  travelling  scholarship.  For  this  he  has  been 
recommended  by  his  teachers.  They  had  marked  this 
bright  boy  out  as  an  ideal  agricultural  instructor,  and  if 
I  could  give  the  reader  all  the  particulars  of  the  case  it 
would  be  a  rare  illustration  of  the  latent  human  resources 
we  mean  to  develop  in  the  Ireland  that  is  to  be.  I 
explain  that  the  young  man  must  pass  a  qualifying 
examination,  but  am  glad  to  be  able  to  admit  that  the 
circumstances  of  his  life,  which  would  have  to  be  taken 
into  account  in  deciding  between  the  qualified,  are  in 
his  case  of  a  kind  likely  to  secure  favourable  con- 
sideration. 

And  now  enters  a  sporting  friend  of  mine,  a  '  practical 
angler/  who  comes  with  a  very  familiar  tale  of  woe. 
The  state  of  the  salmon  fisheries  is  deplorable :  if  the 
Department  does  not  fulfil  its  obvious  duties  there  will 
not  be  a  salmon  in  Ireland  outside  a  museum  in  ten  years 
more.  He  has  lived  for  forty-five  years  on  the  banks  of  a 
salmon  river,  and  he  knows  that  I  don't  fish.  But  this  much 
the  conversation  reveals :  his  own  knowledge  of  the  sub- 
ject is  confined  to  the  piece  of  river  he  happens  to  own, 
the  gossip  he  hears  at  his  club,  and  the  ideas  of  the 
particular  poacher  he  employs  as  his  gillie.  His  sug- 
gested remedy  is  the  abolition  of  all  netting.  But  I  have 


NOT   A   FICTION.  25 1 

to  tell  him  that  only  the  day  before  I  had  a  deputation 
from  the  net  fishermen  in  the  estuary  of  this  very  river, 
whose  bitter  complaint  was  that  this  '  poor  man's  in- 
dustry '  was  being  destroyed  by  the  mackerel  and  herring 
nets  round  the  coast,  and — I  thought  my  friend  would 
have  a  fit — by  the  way  in  which  the  gentlemen  on  the 
upper  waters  neglect  their  duty  of  protecting  the  spawn- 
ing fish!  Some  belonging  to  the  lower  water  interest 
carried  their  scepticism  as  to  the  efficacy  of  artificial  pro- 
pagation to  the  length  of  believing  that  hatcheries  are 
partially  responsible  for  the  decrease.  As  so  often  hap- 
pens, the  opposing  interests,  disagreeing  on  all  else,  find 
that  best  of  peacemakers,  a  common  enemy,  in  the  Govern- 
ment. The  Department  is  responsible — for  two  opposite 
reasons,  it  is  true,  but  somehow  they  seem  to  confirm 
each  other.  We  must  labour  to  find  some  other  common 
ground,  starting  from  the  recognition  that  the  salmon 
fisheries  are  a  national  asset  which  must  be  made  to 
subserve  the  general  public  interest.  I  assure  my  friend 
that  when  all  parties  make  their  proper  contribution  in 
effort  and  in  cash,  the  Department  will  not  be  backward 
in  doing  their  part. 

At  the  end  of  this  interview  a  messenger  brings  a 
telegram  for  '  himself '  from  a  stockowner  in  a  remote 
district.*  '  My  pigs,'  runs  one  of  the  most  business-like 

*  No  fiction  about   this,  nor  about    the    following    letter  to  the 
Secretary : — 

•  The  Scratatory,  Vitny  Dept. 
'  Honord  Sir, 

'  I  want  to  let  ye  know  the  terible  state  we're  in  now.  Al 
the  pigs  about  here  is  dyin  in  showers.  Send  down  a  Vit  at 
oncet.' 


252  A  NEW   DEPARTURE  IN  IRISH  ADMINISTRATION. 

communications  I  ever  received,  '  are  all  spotted.  What 
shall  I  do?'  I  send  it  to  the  Veterinary  Branch,  which, 
with  the  Board  of  Agriculture  in  England,  is  engaged 
in  a  scheme  for  staying  the  ravages  of  swine  fever, 
a  scheme  into  which  the  late  Mr.  Hanbury  threw 
himself  with  his  characteristic  energy.  The  problem  is 
of  immense  importance,  and  the  difficulty  is  not  mainly 
quadrupedal.  Unless  the  police  '  spot '  the  spotted 
pigs,  we  too  often  hear  nothing  about  them.  I  am  sure 
it  must  be  daily  brought  home  to  the  English  Board,  as 
it  is  to  the  Irish  Department,  that  an  enormous  addition 
might  be  made  to  the  wealth  of  the  country  if  our 
veterinary  officers  were  intelligently  and  actively  aided, 
in  their  difficult  duties  for  the  protection  of  our  flocks 
and  herds,  by  those  most  immediately  concerned. 

So  far  it  has  been  an  interesting  morning  bright  with 
the  activities  out  of  which  the  future  is  to  be  made.  The 
element  of  hope  has  predominated,  but  now  comes  a 
visitor  who  wishes  to  see  me  upon  the  one  part  of  my 
duties  and  responsibilities  which  is  distasteful  to  me — 
the  exercise  of  patronage.  He  has  been  unloaded  upon 
me  by  an  influential  person,  upon  whom  he  has  more 
legitimate  claims  than  upon  the  Department.  He  has 
prepared  the  way  for  a  favourable  reception  by  getting 
his  friends  to  write  to  my  friends,  many  of  whom  have 
already  fulfilled  a  promise  to  interview  me  in  his  behalf. 
His  mother  and  two  maiden  aunts  have  written  letters 
which  have  drawn  from  my  poor  Private  Secretary,  who 
has  to  read  them  all,  the  dry  quotation,  '  there's  such 


QUALIFICATIONS.  253 

a  thing  as  being  so  good  as  to  be  good  for  nothing.' 
The  young  hopeful  quickly  puts  an  end  to  my  specula- 
tions as  to  the  exact  capacity  in  which  he  means  to  serve 
the  Department  by  applying  for  an  inspectorship.  I  ask 
him  what  he  proposes  to  inspect,  and  the  sum  and  sub- 
stance of  his  reply  is  that  he  is  not  particular,  but  would 
not  mind  beginning  at  a  moderate  salary,  say  £200  a  year. 
As  for  his  qualifications,  they  are  a  sadly  minus  quantity, 
his  blighted  career  having  included  failure  for  the  army, 
and  a  clerkship  in  a  bank,  which  only  lasted  a  week  when 
he  proved  to  be  deficient  in  the  second  and  dangerous  in 
the  third  of  the  three  R's.  His  case  reminds  me  of  a 
story  of  my  ranching  days,  which  the  exercise  of  patron- 
age has  so  often  recalled  to  my  mind  that  I  must  out 
with  it.  Riding  into  camp  one  evening,  I  turned  my 
horse  loose  and  got  some  supper,  which  was  a  vilely 
cooked  meal  even  for  a  cow  camp.  Recognising  in  the 
cook  a  cowboy  I  had  formerly  employed,  I  said  to  him, 
'  You  were  a  way  up  cow  hand,  but  as  cook  you  are  no 
account.  Why  did  you  give  up  riding  and  take  to  cook- 
ing? What  are  your  qualifications  as  a  cook  any  way?' 
'Qualifications!'  he  replied,  'why,  don't  you  know  I've 
got  varicose  veins?'  My  caller's  qualifications  are  of  an 
equally  negative  description,  though  not  of  a  physical 
kind.  He  is  one  of  the  young  Micawbers,  to  whom  the 
Department  from  its  first  inception  has  been  the  some- 
thing which  was  to  turn  up.  He  had,  of  course,  testi- 
monials which  in  any  other  country  would  have  com- 
manded success  by  their  terms  and  the  position  of  the 


254  A  NEW  DEPARTURE  IN  IRISH  ADMINISTRATION. 

signatories,  but  which  in  Ireland  only  illustrate  the 
charity  with  which  we  condone  our  moral  cowardice 
under  the  name  of  good  nature.  I  am  glad  when  this 
imerview  closes. 

One  more  type — a  Nationalist  Member  of  Parliament ! 
He  does  not  often  darken  the  door  of  a  Government 
office — they  all  have  the  same  structural  defect,  no  front 
stairs — he  never  has  asked  and  never  thought  he  would 
ask  anything  from  the  Government.  But  he  is  interested 
in  some  poor  fishermen  of  County  Clare  who  pursue 
their  calling  under  cruel  disadvantages  for  want  of  the 
protection  from  the  Atlantic  rollers  which  a  small  break- 
water would  afford.  It  is  true  that  they  were  the  worst 
constituents  he  had — went  against  him  in  '  The  Split,'— 
but  if  I  saw  how  they  lived,  and  so  on.  I  knew  all  about 
the  case.  A  breakwater  to  be  of  any  use  would  cost  a  very 
large  sum,  and  the  local  authority,  though  sympathetic, 
did  not  see  their  way  to  contribute  their  proportion,  and 
without  a  local  contribution,  I  explained,  the  Department 
could  not,  consistently  with  its  principles,  unless  in  most 

exceptional Here  he  breaks  in  :  '  Oh !  that  red  tape. 

You're  as  bad  as  the  rest — exceptional,  indeed!  Why, 
everything  is  exceptional  in  my  constituency.  I  am  a 
bit  that  way  myself.  But,  seriously,  the  condition  of 
these  poor  people  would  move  even  a  Government  official. 
Besides,  you  remember  the  night  I  made  thirteen 
speeches  on  the  Naval  Estimates — the  Government 
wanted  a  little  matter  of  twenty  millions — and  you  met 
me  in  the  Lobby  and  told  me  you  wished  to  go  to  bed, 


FOR  THE  HEARTHS  OF  CLARE.  255 

and  asked  me  what  I  really  wanted,  and — I  am  always 
reasonable — I  said  I  would  pass  the  whole  Naval  Pro- 
gramme if  I  got  the  Government  to  give  them  a  boat- 
slip  at  Bally  duck. — "  Done !"  you  said,  and  we  both  went 
home. — I  believe  you  knew  that  I  had  got  constituency 
matters  mixed  up,  that  Ballyduck  was  inland,  and  that  it 
was  Ballycrow  that  I  meant  to  say. — But  you  won't  deny 
that  you  are  under  a  moral  obligation.' 

Well,  I  would  go  into  the  matter  again  very  carefully 
— for  I  thought  we  might  help  these  fishermen  in  some 
other  way — and  write  to  him.  He  leaves  me  ;  and,  while 
outside  the  door  he  travels  over  the  main  points  with  my 
Private  Secretary,  the  lights  and  shades  in  the  picture 
which  this  strange  personality  has  left  on  my  mind 
throw  me  back  behind  the  practical  things  of  to-day. 
In  Parliament  facing  the  Sassanach,  in  Ireland  facing 
their  police,  he  has  for  years — the  best  years  of  his  life — 
displayed  the  same  love  of  fighting  for  fighting's  sake. 
In  the  riots  he  has  provoked,  and  they  are  not  a  few,  he 
is  ever  regardless  of  his  own  skin,  and  would  be  truly 
miserable  if  he  inflicted  any  serious  bodily  harm  on  a 
human  being — even  a  landlord.  It  is  impossible  not  to 
like  this  very  human  anachronism,  who,  within  the  limita- 
tions imposed  by  the  convenience  of  a  citizenship  to 
which  he  unwillingly  belongs,  does  battle 

For  Faith,  and  Fame,  and  Honour,  and  the  ruined  hearths 
of  Clare. 

The  reader  may  take  all  this  as  fiction.  I  am  sure  no 
one  will  annoy  me  by  trying  on  any  of  the  caps  I  have 


256  A  NEW   DEPARTURE  IN  IRISH  ADMINISTRATION. 

displayed  on  the  counter  of  my  shop.  What  I  do  fear  is 
that  the  picture  of  some  of  my  duties  which  I  have 
given  may  have  made  a  wrong  impression  of  the 
Department's  work  upon  the  reader's  mind.  He  may 
have  come  to  the  conclusion  that,  contrary  to  all 
the  principles  laid  down,  an  attempt  was  being  made  to 
do  for  the  people  things  which  the  new  movement  was 
to  induce  the  people  to  do  for  themselves.  The  Depart- 
ment may  appear  to  be  using  its  official  position  and 
Government  funds  to  constitute  itself  a  sort  of  Universal 
Providence,  exercising  an  authority  and  a  discretion  over 
matters  upon  which  in  any  progressive  community  the 
people  must  decide  for  themselves.  However  near  to  the 
appearances  such  an  impression  might  be,  nothing  could 
be  further  from  the  facts.  If  I  have  helped  the  reader  to 
unravel  the  tangled  skein  of  our  national  life,  if  I  have 
sufficiently  revealed  the  mind  of  the  new  movement  to 
show  that  there  is  in  it  'a  scheme  of  things  entire,' 
it  should  be  quite  clear  that  the  deliberate  intentions 
both  of  Mr.  Gerald  Balfour  and  of  those  Irishmen 
whom  he  took  into  his  confidence  are  being  fulfilled 
in  letter  and  in  spirit.  It  only  remains  for  me  to  attempt 
an  adequate  description  of  the  work  of  the  Department 
created  by  that  Chief  Secretary,  and,  above  all,  of  the 
way  in  which  the  people  themselves  are  playing  the  part 
which  his  statesmanship  assigned  to  them. 


CHAPTER  X. 

GOVERNMENT  WITH  THE  CONSENT  OF  THE 
GOVERNED. 

In  the  preceding  chapter  I  attempted  to  give  to  the 
reader  a  rough  impression  of  the  general  purpose  and 
miscellaneous  functions  of  the  new  Department  I 
described  in  some  detail  the  constitution  and  powers  of 
the  Council  of  Agriculture — a  sort  of  Business  Parlia- 
ment— which  criticises  our  doings  and  elects  representa- 
tives on  our  Boards ;  and  of  the  two  Boards  which, 
in  addition  to  their  advisory  functions,  possess 
the  power  of  the  purse.  I  laid  special  stress  upon 
the  important  part  these  instruments  of  the  popular 
will  were  intended  to  play  as  a  link  between  the  people 
and  the  Department.  I  gave  a  similar  description  and 
explanation  of  the  Committees  of  Agriculture  and 
Technical  Instruction,  appointed  by  local  representative 
bodies,  by  means  of  which  the  people  were  brought  into 
touch  with  the  local  as  distinct  from  the  central  work, 
and  made  responsible  for  its  success.  The  details  were 
necessarily  dull ;  and  so  also  must  be  those  which  will  now 
be  required  in  order  to  indicate  the  general  nature  and 
scope  of  the  work  for  the  accomplishment  of  which  all 

this  machinery  was  designed.     Yet    I    am   not   without 

S 


258          GOVERNMENT  AND  THE  GOVERNED. 

hope  that  even  the  general  reader  may  find  a  deep 
human  interest  in  the  practical  endeavour  of  the  humbler 
classes  of  my  fellow-countrymen  to  reconstruct  their 
national  life  upon  the  solid  foundation  of  honest  work. 

The  Department  has  at  the  time  of  writing  been  in 
existence  for  three  years,  the  term  of  office,  it  will  be 
remembered,  of  the  Council  of  Agriculture  and  of  the 
two  Boards.  It  would  be  unreasonable  to  expect  in  so 
short  a  time  any  great  achievement ;  but  the  under- 
standing critic  will  attach  importance  rather  to  the  spirit 
in  which  the  work  was  approached  than  to  the  actual 
amount  of  work  which  was  accomplished.  He  may  say 
that  no  true  estimate  of  its  value  can  be  formed  until  the 
enthusiasm  aroused  by  its  novelty  has  had  time  to  wear 
off.  Those  of  us  who  know  the  real  character  of 
the  work  are  quite  satisfied  that  the  interest  which  it 
aroused  during  the  period  in  which  the  people  had 
yet  to  grasp  its  meaning  and  utility  is  not  likely  to  be- 
come less  real  as  the  blossom  fades  and  the  fruit  begins 
to  swell.  The  attitude  of  the  Irish  people  towards  the 
Department  and  its  work  has  not  been  that  of  a  child 
towards  a  new  toy,  but  of  a  full-grown  man  towards  a 
piece  of  his  life's  work,  upon,  which  he  feels  that  he 
entered  all  too  late.  Indeed,  so  quickly  have  the  people 
grasped  the  significance  of  the  new  opportunities  for 
material  advancement  now  placed  within  their  reach,  that 
the  Department  has  had  to  carry  out,  and  to  assist  the 
statutory  local  committees  in  carrying  out,  a  number 
and  variety  of  schemes  which,  at  any  rate,  proved  that 


THREE   YEARS     WORK. 


259 


public  opinion  did  not  regard  it  as  a  transitory  experi- 
ment, but  as  a  much-needed  institution  which,  if  properly 
utilised,  might  do  much  to  make  up  for  lost  time,  and 
which,  in  any  case,  had  come  to  stay.  The  amount  of 
the  work  which  we  were  thus  constrained  to  undertake 
was  somewhat  embarrassing ;  but  so  general  and  so 
genuine  was  the  desire  to  make  a  start  that  we  have 
done  our  best  to  keep  pace  with  the  local  demands  for 
immediate  action.  The  staff  of  the  Department 
caught  the  spirit  in  which  the  task  had  been  set  by 
the  country,  and  showed  a  keen  anxiety  to  get  to 
work ;  and  I  am  glad  to  have  an  opportunity  of  acknow- 
ledging that  both  the  indoor  and  outdoor  support  it  has 
received  leaves  the  Department  without  excuse  if  it  has 
not  already  justified  its  existence. 

I  shall  deal  as  mercifully  as  I  can  with  my  readers  in 
helping  them  towards  an  understanding  of  what  has 
been  actually  done  in  the  three  years  under  review. 
I  am  aware  that  if  I  were  to  attempt  a  description 
of  all  the  schemes  which  the  variety  of  local 
needs  suggested,  and  in  the  execution  of  which  the 
assistance  of  the  many-sided  Department  was  sought 
and  obtained,  I  should  lose  the  patient  readers,  who  have 
not  already  fainted  by  the  way,  in  a  jungle  where  they 
could  not  see  the  wood  for  the  trees.  These  things  can 
be  studied  by  those  interested, — and  they  I  hope,  in 
Ireland  at  any  rate,  are  not  few — in  the  Annual  Reports 
and  other  official  publications  of  the  Department. 
For  the  general  reader  I  must  try  to  indicate  in 


260          GOVERNMENT  AND  THE  GOVERNED. 

broad  outline  the  nature  and  scope  of  that  side  of 
the  new  movement  which  seeks  to  supplement  organised 
self-help  and  open  the  way  for  individual  enterprise  by  a 
well  considered  measure  of  State  assistance.  I  shall  be 
more  than  satisfied  if  I  succeed  in  giving  him  a  clear 
insight  into  the  manner  in  which  the  delicate  task  of 
making  State  interference  with  the  business  of  the 
people  not  only  harmless  but  beneficial  has  been  set 
about.  It  is  obvious  that  the  fulfilment  of  this  object 
must  depend  upon  the  soundness  of  the  economic  policy 
pursued,  and  upon  the  establishment  and  maintenance 
of  mutual  confidence  between  the  central  authority 
and  the  popular  representative  bodies  through  which  the 
people  utilise  the  new  facilities  afforded  by  the  State. 

I  think  the  best  way  of  giving  the  information  which 
is  required  for  an  understanding  of  our  somewhat  com- 
plicated scheme  for  agricultural  and  industrial  develop- 
ment under  democratic  control  is  first  to  explain  the  line 
of  demarcation  which  we  have  drawn  between  the  respec- 
tive functions  of  the  Department  and  the  people's  com- 
mittees throughout  the  country ;  and  then  I  must  give  a 
rapid  description  of  some  of  the  most  important 
features  of  the  Department's  policy  and  programme. 
I  shall  add  a  sufficiency  of  detail  from  the  actual  work 
accomplished  in  these  organising  and  experimental  years, 
to  illustrate  both  the  difficulties  which  are  incidental  to 
such  a  policy,  and  the  manner  in  which  these  difficulties 
may  be  surmounted. 

When    it   became    manifest    that    both    the    country 


THE    DEPARTMENT    AND    LOCAL    BODIES.  261 

and  the  Department  were  anxious  t j  drive  ahead, 
the  first  thing  to  do  was  to  lay  down  a  modus 
operandi  which  would  assign  to  the  local  and 
central  bodies  their  proper  shares  in  the  work  and 
responsibilities  and  secure  some  degree  of  order  and 
uniformity  in  administration.  This  was  quickly  done, 
and  the  plan  adopted  works  smoothly.  The  Department 
gives  the  local  committee  general  information  as  to  the 
kind  of  purpose  to  which  it  can  legally  and  properly 
apply  the  funds  jointly  contributed  from  the  rates  and 
the  central  exchequer.  The  committee,  after  full 
consideration  of  the  conditions,  needs  and  industrial 
environment  of  the  community  for  which  it  acts,  selects 
certain  definite  projects  which  it  considers  most  applic- 
able to  its  district,  allocates  the  amount  required  to  each 
project,  and  sends  the  scheme  to  the  Department  for  its 
approval.  When  the  scheme  is  formally  approved,  it 
becomes  the  official  scheme  in  the  locality  for  the  current 
year ;  and  the  local  committee  has  to  carry  it  out. 

AJthough  harmony  now  usually  exists  between  the 
local  and  central  authorities  to  the  advantage  and  comfort 
of  both,  a  considerable  amount  of  friction  was  inevitable 
until  they  got  to  understand  each  other.  The  occasional 
over-riding  of  local  desires  by  the  '  autocratic '  Depart- 
ment, which  in  the  first  rush  of  its  work  had  to  act  in  a 
somewhat  peremptory  fashion,  was,  no  doubt,  irritating. 
Now,  however,  it  is  generally  recognised  that  the  central 
body,  having  not  only  the  advice  of  its  experts  and 
access  to  information  from  similar  Departments  in  other 


262          GOVERNMENT  AND  THE  GOVERNED. 

countries  to  guide  it,  but  also  being  in  a  position  to 
profit  by  the  exchange  of  ideas  which  is  constantly  going 
on  between  it  and  all  the  local  committees  in  Ireland, 
is  in  a  position  of  special  advantage  for  deciding  as  to  the 
bearing  of  local  schemes  upon  national  interests,  and 
sometimes  even  as  to  their  soundness  from  a  purely 
local  point  of  view. 

Passing  now  from  the  conditions  under  which  the 
Department's  work  is  done,  we  come  to  review  some 
typical  portions  of  the  work  itself  so  far  as  it 
has  proceeded.  This  falls  naturally,  both  as  re- 
gards that  which  is  done  by  the  central  authority 
for  the  country  at  large  and  that  which  is  locally 
administered,  into  two  divisions.  The  first  consists  of 
direct  aid  to  agriculture  and  other  rural  industries,  and 
to  sea  and  inland  fisheries.  The  second  consists  of 
indirect  aid  given  to  these  objects,  and  also  to  town 
manufactures  and  commerce,  through  education — a 
term  which  must  be  interpreted  in  its  widest  sense. 
Needless  to  say,  direct  aids,  being  tangible  and  imme- 
diately beneficial,  are  the  more  popular :  a  bull,  a  boat,  or 
a  hand-loom  is  more  readily  appreciated  than  a  lecture,  a 
leaflet,  or  an  idea.  Yet  in  the  Department  we  all  realise 
— and,  what  is  more  important,  the  people  are  coming  to 
realise — that  by  far  the  most  important  work  we  have  to 
do  is  that  which  belongs  to  the  sphere  of  education, 
especially  education  which  has  a  distinctly  practical  aim. 
To  this  branch  of  the  subject  I  shall,  therefore,  first 
direct  the  reader's  attention. 


TOWN   AND   COUNTRY.  263 

It  must  be  remembered  that,  for  reasons  fully  set 
out  in  the  earlier  portions  of  the  book,  I  am  treating  the 
Irish  Question  as  being,  in  its  most  important  economic 
and  social  aspects,  the  problem  of  rural  life.  The 
Department's  scheme  of  technical  instruction,  there- 
fore, need  not  here  be  detailed  in  its  application 
to  the  needs  of  vour  few  manufacturing  towns, 
but  only  in  its  application  to  agriculture  and  the  sub- 
sidiary industries.  I  do  not  suggest  that  the  questions 
relating  to  the  revival  of  industry  in  our  large  manufac- 
turing centres  and  provincial  towns  are  not  of  the  first 
importance.  The  local  authorities  in  these  places  have 
eagerly  come  into  the  movement,  and  the  Department 
has  already  taken  part  in  founding,  in  our  cities  and 
larger  towns,  comprehensive  schemes  of  technical  educa- 
tion, as  to  the  outcome  of  which  we  have  every  reason  to 
be  hopeful.  Not  only  that,  but  it  is  highly  necessary  for 
the  Department  to  consider  these  schemes  in  close  rela- 
tion to  its  work  upon  the  more  specially  rural  problems, 
for,  as  I  have  said  elsewhere,*  the  interdependence  of 
town  and  country,  and  the  establishment  of  proper  rela- 
tions between  their  systems  of  industry  and  education,  is 
a  prime  factor  in  Irish  prosperity.  But  the  rural  problem, 
as  I  have  so  often  reiterated,  is  the  core  of  the  Irish 
Question ;  and  to  deal  at  all  adequately  with  technical 
education,  so  far  as  we  carry  it  on  upon  lines  common 
both  to  Great  Britain  and  Ireland,  would  lead  us  too  far 
afield  on  the  present  occasion.  I  must,  therefore,  con- 
*  Pages  38,  39. 


264          GOVERNMENT  AND  THE  GOVERNED. 

tent  myself  with  indicating  my  reasons  for  leaving  it 
rather  on  one  side,  and  pass  on  to  a  brief  description  of 
the  Department's  educational  work  in  respect  of  its  two- 
fold aim  of  developing  agriculture  and  the  subsidiary 
industries. 

In  the  case  of  agriculture  our  task  is  perfectly  plain. 
We  know  pretty  well  what  we  want  to  do,  for  we  are 
dealing  with  an  existing  industry,  and  with  known 
conditions.  The  productivity  of  the  soil,  the  demand  of 
the  market,  the  means  of  transport  from  the  one  to  the 
other,  are  all  easily  ascertainable.  What  most  needs  to  be 
provided  in  Ireland  is  a  much  higher  technical  skill,  a 
more  advanced  scientific  and  commercial  knowledge,  as 
applied  to  agricultural  production  and  distribution.*  This, 
in  our  belief,  depends,  more  than  upon  any  other  agency, 
upon  the  soundness  of  the  education  which  is  provided 
to  develop  the  capacities  of  those  in  charge  of  these 
operations.  Our  chief  difficulty  is  that  of  co-ordinating 
our  teaching  of  technical  agriculture  with  the  general 
educational  systems  of  the  country — a  difficulty  which 
the  other  educational  authorities  are  all  united  with  us 
in  seeking  to  remove. 

When,  on  the  other  hand,  education — again,  I  believe, 
the  chief  agency  for  the  purpose — is  considered  as  a 
means  for  the  creation  of  new  industries,  we  come  face 
to  face  with  a  wholly  different  problem.  We  have  no 

*  It  must  be  borne  in  mind  that  the  Department  is  not  officially 
concerned  with  the  question  of  the  economic  distribution  of  land 
referred  to  on  pp,  46-49. 


THE  DEPARTMENT'S  EDUCATIONAL  POLICY.         265 

longer  an  industry  which  we  are  seeking  to  foster  and 
develop  going  on  under  our  eyes,  steadying  us  in  our 
theorising,  and  in  our  experimenting  upon  the  mind  of 
the  worker,  by  bringing  us  into  close  touch  with  the 
actual  conditions  of  his  work.  Our  chief  aim  must 
be  to  develop  his  adaptability  for  the  ever-changing 
and,  we  hope,  improving  economic  industrial  conditions 
amidst  which  he  will  have  to  work.  But  unless  we  can 
satisfy  parents  that  the  schemes  of  development  in  which 
their  children  are  being  educated  to  take  their  place 
have  an  assured  prospect  of  practical  realisation,  they 
will  naturally  prefer  an  inferior  teaching  which  seems 
to  them  to  offer  a  better  prospect  of  an  immediate 
wage  or  salary.  The  teachers  in  the  secondary 
schools  of  the  country,  who,  so  far,  have  shown  a  desire 
to  assist  us  in  giving  an  industrial  and  commercial 
direction  to  our  educational  policy,  would  also  in 
that  event  have  to  meet  the  wishes  of  the  parents ; 
and  thus  education  would  fall  back  into  the  old  rut  with 
its  cramming,  its  examinations  and  result  fees — all 
leading  to  the  multiplication  of  clerks  and  professional 
men,  and  preventing  us  from  turning  the  thoughts  and 
energies  of  the  people  towards  productive  occupations. 

The  natural  trend  of  our  educational  policy  will  now 
be  clear.  Leaving  out  of  account  large  towns,  where  our 
problem  is,  as  I  have  said,  the  same  as  that  which  con- 
fronts the  industrial  classes  in  the  manufacturing  centres 
of  Great  Britain,  we  are  chiefly  concerned  with  the 
application  of  science  to  the  cultivation  of  the  soil  and 


266          GOVERNMENT  AND  THE  GOVERNED. 

the  improvement  of  live  stock,  and  of  business  prin- 
ciples to  the  commercial  side  of  farming ;  with  the 
teaching  of  dairying,  horticulture,  apiculture,  and  what 
has  been  called  farm-yard  lore,  outside  the  rural  home, 
and  with  domestic  economy  inside.  On  the  industrial 
as  distinct  from  the  agricultural  side  of  the  work  in  rural 
localities,  technical  instruction  must  be  directed  towards 
the  development  of  subsidiary  rural  industries. 

We  early  came  to  the  conclusion  that  we  could  riot 
expect  to  find  a  system  which  we  could  simply  transplant 
from  some  other  country.  The  system  adopted  in  Great 
Britain,  where  each  county  or  group  of  counties  maintains 
an  agricultural  college  and  an  experimental  farm,  and 
many  more  elaborate  systems  on  the  continent,  were  all 
found  on  examination  to  be  inapplicable  to  our  own 
rural  conditions,  unsuitable  to  the  national  character, 
and  unrelated  to  the  history  of  our  agriculture.  Many 
of  these  schemes  might  have  turned  out  a  few  highly 
qualified  authorities  on  the  theory  of  agriculture,  and 
even  good  practical  directors  for  those  who  farm  on  a 
large  scale.  But  we  are  dealing  with  a  country  with 
great  possibilities  from  an  agricultural  point  of  view,  but 
where,  nevertheless,  agriculture  in  many  parts  is  in  a  very 
backward  condition,  and  where  it  is  probably  safe 
to  say  that  three-fifths  of  the  farms  are  crowded  on 
one-fourth  of  the  land.  We  are  dealing  with  a 
community  with  whom  the  systems  of  elementary, 
secondary  and  higher  education  have  not  tended  to 
prepare  the  student  for  agricultural  pursuits.  A  system 


THE    TEACHER    DIFFICULTY.  267 

of  agricultural  and  domestic  education  suited  to  the 
wants  of  those  who  are  to  farm  the  land  must 
recognise  and  foster  the  new  spirit  of  self-help  and 
hope  which  is  springing  up  in  the  country,  and  must 
be  made  so  interesting  as  to  become  a  serious  rival 
to  the  race  meeting  and  the  public-house.  The  daily 
drudgery  of  farm  work  must  be  counteracted  by  the 
ambition  to  possess  the  best  stock,  the  neatest  home- 
stead and  fences,  the  cleanest  and  the  best  tilled  fields. 
The  unsolved  problem  of  agricultural  education  is  to 
devise  a  system  which  will  reach  down  to  the  small 
working  farmers  who  form  the  great  bulk  of  the  wealth 
producers  of  Ireland,  to  give  them  new  hope,  a  new 
interest,  new  knowledge  and,  I  might  add,  a  new  indus- 
trial character. 

We  were  met  at  the  outset  by  the  difficulty  which 
would  apply  to  any  system — that  of  finding  trained 
teachers.  This  deficiency  was  felt  in  two  directions — 
first,  in  the  secondary  school,  in  which  the  preliminary 
scientific  studies  should  be  undertaken,  which  are  neces- 
sary to  enable  a  lad  to  profit  by  more  advanced  instruction 
later  on  ;  and,  secondly,  in  the  special  training  of  tech- 
nical agriculture.  It  would  not  have  been  desirable  to 
overcome  these  difficulties  by  any  very  extensive  im- 
portation of  teachers  from  without.  I  certainly  hold 
the  occasional  importation  of  teachers  with  outside  ex- 
perience to  be  most  desirable,  but  these  should  not  form 
more  than  a  leaven  of  the  pedagogic  lump ;  for  it  is  a 
serious  hindrance  when  to  the  task  of  familiarising 


268          GOVERNMENT  AND  THE  GOVERNED. 

students  with  a  new  system  of  education  there  is  added 
that  of  familiarising  a  large  body  of  teachers  with  the 
intellectual,  social  and  economic  conditions  of  the 
people  among  whom  they  are  to  work. 

The  manner  in  which  the  teacher  difficulty  was  sur- 
mounted may  be  briefly  stated,  first,  as  regards  the  school, 
and,  secondly,  as  regards  the  teaching  of  agriculture. 
Those  already  engaged  in  the  teaching  profession  could 
not  be  relegated  again  to  the  status  pupillaris.  There 
was  only  one  way  in  which  they  could  assist  us  to  over- 
come the  difficulty,  and  that  involved  a  great  sacrifice  on 
their  part,  the  sacrifice  of  their  well-earned  vacation, 
but  a  sacrifice  which  they  willingly  made.  The 
teachers  most  urgently  needed  were  those  of  practical 
science,  with  knowledge  of  experimental  work  ;  and  about 
five  hundred  teachers  from  secondary  schools,  in  order  to 
qualify  themselves,  have  attended  summer  courses 
specially  organised  by  the  Department  at  several  centres 
in  Ireland,  while  about  four  hundred  have  availed  them- 
selves of  special  summer  courses  in  such  subjects  as 
drawing,  manual  instruction,  domestic  economy,  building 
construction,  wood-carving  and  modelling. 

For  the  provision  of  a  future  supply  of  thoroughly 
trained  teachers  of  science  and  of  technology,  including 
agriculture,  the  Royal  College  of  Science  has  been  re- 
organised. Although  this  institution  was  brought  under 
the  new  conditions  little  more  than  three  years  ago, 
it  will  be  seen  that  no  time  has  been  lost  when  I  state 
that  the  first  batch  of  men  who  have  received  a  three 


PROBLEM  OF  AGRICULTURAL  EDUCATION.       269 

years'  course  of  training  under  the  new  programme  are 
already  at  work  under  County  Committees.  For  the 
training  of  these  teachers,  scholarships  had  to  be  pro- 
vided, and  new  professors  and  teachers,  particularly  in 
agriculture,  had  to  be  appointed. 

In  regard  to  agricultural  instruction  we  had  to  begin 
by  carefully  considering  what,  among  many  alternative 
plans,  should  be  our  immediate  as  well  as  our  more  remote 
aims.  The  Department's  officers  had  studied  Conti- 
nental systems,  and  some  of  them  had  taken  part  in 
establishing  systems  of  agricultural  education  in  Great 
Britain.  But  it  was  not  until  the  summer  of  1901 
that  we  had  sufficiently  studied  the  question  in  Ireland 
itself,  with  direct  reference  to  the  history,  the  environ- 
ment, and  the  ideals  of  the  people,  to  justify  us  in  initia- 
ting a  policy  or  formulating  a  definite  programme  for  its 
execution.*  The  main  object  was  to  secure  for  the 
youth  of  the  present  generation  who  will  later  be 
concerned  with  agriculture,  sound  and  thorough  in- 
struction in  its  principles  and  practice.  Everyone 
who  has  given  any  thought  to  the  subject  knows 
how  difficult  it  is  to  teach  technical  agriculture  unless 
provision  has  been  made  in  the  general  education 
of  the  country  for  instruction  in  those  fundamental 
principles  of  science  which,  recognised  or  unrecognised, 
lie  at  the  root  of,  and  profoundly  influence  agricultural 
practice.  This  foundation,  as  I  have  shown,  is  now  being 

*  For  a  full  description  of  the  Department's  scheme  of  agricultural 
education  I  may  refer  to  a  Memorandum  on  Agricultural  Education  in 
Ireland,  written  by  the  author  and  published  by  the  Department,  July, 
1901, 


270          GOVERNMENT  AND  THE  GOVERNED. 

laid  in  Ireland.  In  our  scheme  the  boy  who  has 
managed  to  avail  himself  of  a  two  or  three  years' 
course  of  practical  science  in  one  of  the  secondary 
schools  is  then  prepared  to  take  full  advantage  of  courses 
of  technology,  and  will  have  to  make  up  his  mind  as  to 
the  career  he  is  to  follow.  We  are  now  considering  the 
case  of  a  boy  who  is  going  to  become  a  farmer,  the  class 
to  which  we  chiefly  look  for  the  future  well-being  of 
Ireland.  It  is  necessary  that  he  should  be  taught  the 
practical  as  well  as  the  technical  side  of  agriculture. 
The  practical  work  he  can  ham  upon  his  father's 
farm  during  spring  and  summer,  and  the  techni- 
cal by  continuing  his  studies  during  the  winter  months 
in  a  school  of  agriculture.  The  establishment  of  such 
winter  schools  is  in  contemplation.  But,  in  the  mean- 
while, to  bring  home  to  farmers  the  advantages  of  a  first- 
class  agricultural  education  for  their  sons,  and  at  the 
same  time  to  teach  these  farmers  the  more  practical 
application  of  science  to  agriculture,  the  Department 
decided  on  a  preliminary  period  of  Itinerant  Instruction. 
The  teacher  difficulty,  experienced  on  all  sides  of 
our  work,  was  probably  felt  more  acutely  in  regard  to 
the  specialised  teachers  of  agriculture  than  in  any  other 
connection.  Here  it  was  necessary  to  take  the  young 
men  brought  up  upon  farms  and  possessed  of  the  normal 
qualifications  of  the  Irish  practical  farmer.  We  then  had 
to  make  them  into  teachers  by  adding  to  their  inherited 
and  home-manufactured  capacities  a  scientific  training. 
In  the  training  of  agricultural  teachers  the  Albert 


ITINERANT  INSTRUCTION.  2JI 

Institute,  Glasnevin,  has  been  utilised  by  the  Department. 
This  school  has  also  been  re-organised  to  meet  the  new 
programme,  and  it  will  probably  form  in  future  a  link 
between  the  winter  schools  of  agriculture  and  the  Royal 
College  of  Science  in  the  training  of  our  agricultural 
teachers. 

Partly  by  these  methods,  partly  by  the  temporary 
engagement  of  lecturers  on  special  subjects,  and  partly 
by  the  appointment  of  trained  teachers  from  England  or 
Scotland,  the  system  of  itinerant  instruction  has  been 
brought  into  operation  as  fully  as  could  be  expected  in 
the  time.  Already  half  the  County  Committees  have 
been  provided  with  County  instructors,  while  the  re- 
mainder have  nearly  all  drafted  schemes  and  allocated 
funds  for  a  similar  purpose,  ready  to  go  to  work  as  soon 
as  more  teachers  have  been  trained. 

The  Itinerant  Instruction  scheme,  it  may  be  pointed 
out,  besides  one  obvious,  has  another  less  immediately 
recognisable  purpose.  The  direct  business  of  the  itinerant 
instructor  is,  by  the  aid  of  experimental  plots,  simple 
lectures,  and  demonstrations,  to  teach  the  farmers  of  his 
district  as  much  as  they  can  take  in  without  the  scientific 
preparation  in  which,  as  adults  who  have  grown  up 
under  the  old  system  of  education,  they  are  still  lacking. 
But  he  does  more  than  that.  He  not  only  conducts  a 
school  for  adults,  but  in  the  very  process  of  instruction 
he  necessarily  makes  them  aware  of  the  vital  necessity  of 
a  school  for  the  young ;  and  they  begin,  as  parents,  to 
understand  and  to  desire  the  kind  of  instruction  in  the 


272          GOVERNMENT  AND  THE  GOVERNED. 

schools  of  the  country  which  will  prepare  their  children 
to  take  more  advantage  of  the  advanced  teaching  in  agri- 
culture than  they  themselves  can  ever  hope  to  do. 

This  preparation  is  provided  for  as  follows.  To  the 
Department,  as  has  already  been  explained,  was  handed 
over  the  administration  of  the  Science  and  Art  Grants 
formerly  administered  by  South  Kensington.  The  De- 
partment accordingly  drew  up  a  programme  of  experi- 
mental science  and  drawing,  carrying  capitation  grants, 
for  day  secondary  schools.  The  Intermediate  Education 
Board,  acting  on  the  suggestion  of  the  Consultative 
Committee  for  Co-ordinating  Education,*  adopted  this 
programme  and  at  the  same  time  undertook  to  accept 
the  reports  of  the  Department's  inspectors  as  the  basis 
of  their  awards  in  the  new  "  subject."  These  steps 
insured  the  rapid  and  general  introduction  of  this  practi- 
cal teaching  in  secondary  schools,  and,  owing  particularly 
to  the  spirit  in  which  their  authorities  and  teaching  staffs 
accepted  the  innovation,  the  work  has  been  carried  out 
with  the  happiest  results. 

I  now  come  to  the  subjects  grouped  together  under  the 
classification  of  'domestic  economy.'  These  differ  only 
in  detail  in  their  application  to  town  and  country.  To 
these  subjects  the  Department  attaches  great  im- 
portance. In  the  industrial  life  of  manufacturing 
towns  I  am  persuaded  that  far  too  little  thought 
has  been  given  to  this  element  of  industrial  effici- 
ency. From  a  purely  economic  point  of  view  a 

*   See  ante,  pp.  236-238, 


DOMESTIC   ECONOMY.  273 

saving  in  the  worker's  income  due  to  superior  house- 
wifery is  equivalent  to  an  increase  in  his  earnings ;  but, 
morally,  the  superior  thrift  is,  of  course,  immensely 
more  important.  "  Without  economy,"  says  Dr.  Johnson, 
"  none  can  be  rich,  and  with  it  few  can  be  poor,"  and  the 
education  which  only  increases  the  productiveness  of 
labour  and  neglects  the  principles  of  wise  spending  will 
place  us  at  a  disadvantage  in  the  great  industrial  struggle. 
When  we  come  to  consider  domestic  economy  as  an 
agency  for  improving  the  conditions  of  the  peasant 
home,  not  only  by  thrift,  but  by  increasing  the  general 
attractiveness  of  home  life,  the  introduction  of  a  sound 
system  of  domestic  economy  teaching  becomes  not  only 
important,  but  vital. 

The  establishment  of  such  a  system  and  the  task  of 
making  it  operative  and  effective  in  the  country  is  beset 
with  difficulties.  The  teacher  difficulty  confronts  us 
again,  and  also  that  of  making  pupils  and  their  parents 
understand  that  there  are  other  objects  in  domestic 
training  than  that  of  qualifying  for  domestic  service. 
A  corps  of  instructresses  in  domestic  economy  is,  how- 
ever, already  abroad  throughout  the  country,  nearly 
all  the  County  Councils  having  already  appointed 
them.  Some  of  these  teachers,  who  have  made  the 
best  contributions  towards  the  as  yet  only  partially 
determined  question  of  the  ultimate  aim  and  present 
possibilities  of  a  course  of  instruction  in  hygiene, 
laundry  work,  cookery,  the  management  of  children, 
sewing,  and  so  forth,  have  told  me  that  the  demand 


274         GOVERNMENT  AND  THE  GOVERNED. 

in  rural  districts  seems  to  be  chiefly  for  the  class 
of  instruction  which  may  lead  to  success  in  town  life. 
I  have  heard  of  a  class  of  girls  in  a  Connaught  village 
who  would  not  be  content  with  knowing  the  accomplish- 
ments of  a  farmer's  wife  until  they  had  learned  how  to 
make  asparagus  soup  and  cook  sweetbreads.  No  doubt 
they  had  read  of  the  way  things  are  done  in  the  kitchens 
of  the  great.  This  tendency  should  never  be  encouraged, 
but  neither  can  it  always  be  inflexibly  repressed  without 
endangering  the  main  objects  of  the  class. 

Women  teachers  of  poultry-keeping,  dairying,  domestic 
science  and  kindred  subjects  are  trained  at  the  Munster 
Institute,  Cork,  and  the  School  of  Domestic  Economy, 
Kildare  Street,  Dublin,  both  of  which  have  been  equipped 
to  meet  the  needs  of  the  new  programme.  The  want  of 
teachers,  and  not  any  lack  of  interest  on  the  part  of  the 
country,  has  alone  prevented  all  the  counties  from  adopt- 
ing schemes  for  encouraging  improvement  in  all  these 
branches  of  work.  I  may  add  that  more  than  one 
hundred  and  fifty  of  these  qualified  teachers  are  now 
at  work  under  County  Committees. 

I  have  already,  in  this  chapter,  indicated  that  outside 
large  industrial  centres,  our  educational  policy  is,  broadly 
speaking,  twofold.  We  seek,  in  the  first  place,  through 
our  programme  in  Experimental  Science  and  its  allied 
subjects,  now  so  generally  adopted  by  secondary  schools 
in  Ireland,  to  give  that  fundamental  training  in  science 
and  scientific  method  which,  most  thinkers  are  agreed, 
constitutes  a  condition  precedent  to  sound  specialised 


THE  HOME  AND  THE  FACTORY.  275 

teaching  of  agriculture  as  well  as  other  forms  of  industry. 
We  seek  further,  by  methods  less  academic  in  char- 
acter— for  example,  by  itinerant  instruction  which  is  of 
value  chiefly  to  those  with  whom  '  school '  is  a  thing  of 
the  past — to  teach  not  only  improved  agricultural  methods 
but  also  simple  industries,  and  to  promote  the  cultivation 
of  industrial  habits  which  are  as  essential  to  the  success 
of  farming  as  to  that  of  every  other  occupation.  Classes 
in  manual  work  of  various  kinds — woodwork,  carpentry, 
applied  drawing  and  building  construction,  lace  and 
crochet  making,  needlework,  dressmaking  and  em- 
broidery, sprigging,  hosiery  and  other  such  subjects,  have 
been  numerously  and  steadily  attended. 

I  do  not  ignore  the  argument  that  such  home  industries 
must  in  time  give  way  before  the  competition  of 
highly-organised  factory  industries.  The  simple  answer 
is  that  it  is  desirable,  and  indeed  necessary,  to  employ 
the  energy  now  running  to  waste  in  our  rural  districts — 
energy  which  cannot  in  the  nature  of  things  be  employed 
in  highly-  organised  industries.  To  the  small  farmer  and 
his  family,  time  is  a  realisable,  though  too  often  unrealised, 
asset,  and  it  is  part  of  our  aim  to  aid  the  family  income 
by  employing  their  waste  time.  Even  it  we  can 
only  cause  them  to  do  at  home  what  they  now  pay  some- 
one else  to  do,  we  shall  not  only  have  improved  their 
budget  but  shall  have  contributed  to  the  elevation  of  the 
standard  of  home  life,  and  thus,  in  no  small  measure,  to 
the  solution  of  the  difficult  problem  of  rural  life  in 
Ireland. 


2^6          GOVERNMENT  AND  THE  GOVERNED. 

I  think  the  reader  will  now  understand  the  general 
character  of  the  problem  with  which  we  were  confronted 
and  the  means  by  which  its  solution  is  being  sought.  Our 
policy  was  not  one  which  was  likely  to  commend  itself  to 
the  "  man  in  the  street."  Indeed,  to  be  quite  candid,  it  was 
a  little  disappointing  even  to  myself  that  I  could  not 
immortalise  my  appointment  by  erecting  monuments 
both  to  my  constructive  ability  and  to  my  educational 
zeal  in  the  shape  of  stately  edifices  at  convenient 
railway  centres,  preferably  along  the  tourist  routes. 
We  have  had  to  stand  the  fire  of  the  critic  fresh  from 
his  holiday  on  the  Continent  where  he  had  seen  agri- 
cultural and  technological  institutions,  magnificently 
housed  and  lavishly  equipped,  fitting  generations  of 
young  men  and  young  women  for  competition  with  our 
less  fortunate  countrymen.  It  is  hard  to  prevail  in 
argument  against  the  man  who  has  gone  and  seen  for 
himself.  It  is  useless  to  point  out  to  the  man  with  a 
kodak  that  the  Corinthian  facade  and  the  marble  columns 
of  the  aula  maxima  which  aroused  his  patriotic  envy 
are  but  a  small  part  of  the  educational  structure 
which  he  saw  and  thought  he  understood.  If  he  would 
read  the  history  of  the  systems  and  trace  the  suc- 
cessive stages  by  which  the  need  for  these  great  institu- 
tions was  established,  he  would  have  a  little  more 
sympathy  with  the  difficulties  of  the  Department,  a  little 
more  patience  with  its  Fabian  policy. 

I  must  not,  however,  utter  a  word  which  suggests  that 
the  Department  has  any  ground  of  complaint  against  the 


SAVINGS   OF   INCOME.  277 

country  for  the  spirit  in  which  it  has  been  met ;  especi- 
ally as  there  was  one  factor  to  be  taken  into  account 
which  made  it  difficult  for  public  opinion  to  approve  of 
our  policy.    As  I  have  already  explained,  a  large  capital 
sum  of  a  little  over  £200,000  was  handed  over  to  the 
Department  at  its  creation.    During  the  first  year,  what 
with  the  organisation  of  the  staff,  the  thinking  out  of  a 
policy  on  every  side  of  the  Department's  work,  the  con- 
stitution of  the  statutory  committees  to  administer  its 
local  schemes  in  town  and  country,  the  agreement,  after 
long  discussion,   between  the   central  body  and   these 
committees  upon  the  local  schemes,  and  all  the  other 
preparatory  steps  which  had  to  be  taken  before  money 
could  wisely  be  applied,  it  is  obvious  that  the  Depart- 
ment could  not  have  spent  its  income.     In  the  second 
year,  and  even  the  third  year,  savings  were  effected,  and 
the  original  capital  sum  has  been  largely  increased.  What 
more  natural  than  that  in  a  poor  country  a  spending 
Department   which  was   backward   in  spending  should 
appear  to  be  lacking  in  enterprise,  if  not  in  administrative 
capacity  ?    But  whether  the  policy  was  right  or  wrong  it 
has  unquestionably  been  approved  by  the  best  thought  in 
the  country,  a  fact  which  throws  a  very  interesting  light 
upon  the  constitutional  aspects  of  the  Department.     At 
each  successive  stage  the  policy  was  discussed  at  the  Coun- 
cil of  Agriculture  and  its  practical  operation  was  depen- 
dent upon  the  consent  of  the  Boards  which  have  the  power 
of  the  purse.    A  Vice-President  who  had  not  these  bodies 
at  his  back  would  be  powerless,  in  fact  would  have  to 


278          GOVERNMENT  AND  THE  GOVERNED. 

resign.  Thoughtless  criticism  has  now  and  again  con- 
demned not  only  the  parsimonious  action  of  the  Depart- 
ment, but  the  invertebrate  conduct  of  the  Council  of 
Agriculture  and  the  Boards  in  tolerating  it.  The  time 
will  soon  come  when  the  service  rendered  to  their  country 
by  the  members  of  the  first  Council  and  Boards,  who  gave 
their  representative  backing  to  a  slow  but  sure  educa- 
tional policy,  and  scorned  to  seek  popularity  in  showy 
projects  and  local  doles,  will  be  gratefully  remembered 
to  them. 

Already  we  have  had  some  gratifying  evidences  that 
the  country  is  with  us  in  the  paramount  importance  we 
attach  to  education  as  the  real  need  of  the  hour.  Most 
readers  will  be  surprised  to  hear  that  in  the  short  time 
the  Department  has  been  at  work  it  has  aided  in  the 
equipment  of  nearly  two  hundred  science  laboratories 
and  of  about  fifty  manual  instruction  workshops,  while 
the  many-sided  programme  involved  in  the  movement  as 
a  whole  is  in  operation  in  some  four  hundred  schools 
attended  by  thirty-six  thousand  pupils. 

Nothing  can  be  more  gratifying  than  the  unanimous 
testimony  of  the  officers  of  the  Department  to  the 
increasing  practical  intelligence  and  reasonableness 
of  the  numerous  Committees  responsible  for  the 
local  administration  of  the  schemes  which  the  Depart- 
ment has  to  approve  of  and  supervise.  The  demand 
for  visible  money's  worth  has  largely  given  place 
to  a  genuine  desire  for  schemes  having  a  practical 
educational  value  for  the  industry  of  the  district.  County 


IMPROVEMENT  OF   LIVE   STOCK.  279 

Clare  is  not  generally  considered  the  most  advanced  part 
of  Ireland,  nor  can  Kilrush  be  very  far  distant  from  '  the 
back  of  Godspeed ' ;  yet  even  from  that  storm-battered 
outpost  of  Irish  ideas  I  was  memorialised  a  year  ago  to 
induce  the  County  Council  to  pay  less  attention  to  the 
improvement  of  cattle  and  more  to  the  technical  educa- 
tion of  the  peasantry. 

Under  the  heading  of  direct  aids  to  agriculture,  rural 
industries,  and  sea  and  inland  fisheries,  there  is  much 
important  and  useful  work  which  the  Department  has  set 
in  motion,  partly  by  the  use  of  its  funds  and  partly 
by  suggestion  and  the  organisation  of  local  effort. 
The  most  obvious,  popular  and  easily  understood  schemes 
were  those  directed  to  the  improvement  of  live  stock. 
The  Department  exercised  its  supervision  and  control 
with  the  help  of  advisory  committees  composed  of 
the  best  experts  it  could  get  to  volunteer  advice  upon 
the  various  classes  of  live  stock.  It  is  unnecessary  to 
give  any  details  of  these  schemes.  The  Department 
profited  by  the  experience  of,  and  received  con- 
siderable assistance  from  the  Royal  Dublin  Society, 
which  had  for  many  years  administered  a  Government 
grant  for  the  improvement  of  horses  and  cattle.  The 
broad  principle  adopted  by  the  Department  was  that  its 
efforts  and  its  available  resources  should  be  devoted 
rather  to  improving  the  quality,  than  to  increasing  the 
quantity,  of  the  stock  in  the  country,  the  latter  function 
being  regarded  as  belonging  to  the  region  of  private 
enterprise. 


28O          GOVERNMENT  AND  THE  GOVERNED. 

It  is  impossible  to  over-estimate  the  importance  to  the 
country  of  having  a  widespread  interest  aroused  and  dis- 
cussion stimulated  on  problems  of  breeding  which  affect 
a  trade  of  vast  importance  to  the  economic  standing  of 
the  country — a  trade  which  now  reaches  in  horned  cattle 
alone  an  annual  export  of  nearly  three  quarters  of  a 
million  animals.    All  manner  of  practical  discussions  were 
set  on  foot,  ranging  from  the  production  of  the  ideal,  the 
general  purposes  cow,  to  that  controversy  which  com- 
petes, in  the  virulence  with  which  it  is  waged,  with  the 
political,  the  educational,  and  the  fiscal  questions — the 
question  whether  the  hackney  strain  will  bring  a  new 
era  of  prosperity  to  Ireland,  or  whether  it  will  irretriev- 
ably destroy  the  reputation  of  the  Irish  hunter.     The 
discussion  of  these  problems  has  been  accompanied  by 
much  practical  work  which,  in  due  time,  cannot  fail  to 
produce  a  considerable  improvement  upon  the  breed  of 
different  classes  of  live  stock.    In  one  year  over  one  thou- 
sand sires  have  been  selected  by  the  experts  of  the 
Department  for  admission    to  the  stock    improvemenf 
schemes.    Probably  an  equal  number  of  breeding  animals 
offered  for  inspection  have  been  rejected.    Many  a  cause 
celebre  has  not  unnaturally  arisen  over  the  decisions  of  the 
equestrian  tribunal,  and  there  have  not  been  wanting 
threats  that  the  attention  of  Parliament  should  be  called 
to  the  gross  partiality  of  the  Department    which    has 
cast  a  reflection  upon  the  form  of  stallion  A  or  upon  the 
constitutional  soundness  of  stallion  B.     On  the  whole, 
as  far  as  I  can  gather,  the  best  authorities  in  the  country 


EXPERIMENTAL    PLOTS.  28l 

are  agreed  that  since  the  Department  has  been  at  work 
there  has  been  established  a  higher  standard  of  excel- 
lence in  the  bucolic  mind  as  regards  that  vastly  important 
national  asset,  our  flocks  and  herds. 

Again  for  details  I  must  refer  the  reader  to  official 
documents.  There  he  will  find  as  much  information  as  he 
can  digest  about  the  vast  variety  of  agricultural  activities 
which  originate  sometimes  with  the  Department's  officers 
or  with  its  Journal  and  leaflets,  the  circulation  of  which 
has  no  longer  to  be  stimulated  from  our  Statistics  and  In- 
telligence bureau,  and  sometimes  emanate  from  the  local 
committees,  whose  growing  interest  in  the  work  natur- 
ally leads  to  the  discovery  of  fresh  needs  and  hitherto 
unthought  of  possibilities  of  agricultural  and  industrial 
improvement.  I  may,  however,  indicate  a  few  of  the 
subjects  which  have  been  gone  into  even  in  these  years 
while  the  new  Department  has  been  trying  so  far  as  it 
might,  without  sacrifice  of  efficiency  and  sound  economic 
principle,  to  keep  pace  with  the  feverish  anxiety  of  a 
genuinely  interested  people  to  get  to  work  upon  schemes 
which  they  believe  to  be  practical,  sound,  and  of  perma- 
nent utility. 

A  question  which  has  troubled  administrators  of  State 
aid  to  every  progressive  agricultural  community,  and 
which  each  country  must  settle  for  itself,  is  by  what 
form  of  object  lesson  in  ordinary  agriculture  intelligent 
local  interest  can  best  be  aroused  We  have  advo- 
cated widely  diffused  small  experimental  plots,  and 
they  have  done  much  good.  Probably  the  most  useful 


282         GOVERNMENT  AND  THE  GOVERNED. 

of  our  crop  improvement  schemes  have  been  those 
which  have  demonstrated  the  profitableness  of  artificial 
manures,  the  use  of  which  has  been  enormously  increased. 
The  profits  derivable  in  many  parts  of  Ireland  from  the 
cultivation  of  early  potatoes  has  been  demonstrated  in 
the  most  convincing  manner.  To  what  may  be  called 
the  industrial  crops,  notably  flax  and  barley,  a  great  deal 
of  time  and  thought  has  been  applied  and  much  infor- 
mation disseminated  and  illustrated  by  practical  experi- 
ments. In  many  quarters  interest  has  been  aroused  in 
the  possibilities  of  profitable  tobacco  culture.  Many 
negative  and  some  positive  results  have  been  attained  by 
the  Department  in  the  as  yet  incomplete  experiments 
upon  this  crop.  Much  has  been  learned  about  the  func- 
tions of  central  and  local  agricultural  and  small  industry 
shows,  those  occasional  aids  to  the  year's  work  which 
disseminate  knowledge  and  stimulate  interest  and  friendly 
rivalry  among  the  different  producers.  The  reduction  in 
the  death-rate  among  young  stock,  due  to  preventible 
causes  such  as  white  scour  and  blackleg,  is  well  worthy 
of  the  attention  of  those  who  wish  to  study  the  more 
practical  work  of  the  Department. 

The  branch  of  the  Department's  work  which  deals 
with  the  Sea-fisheries  can  only  be  very  briefly  touched 
on.  It  falls  into  two  main  heads  which  may  roughly  be 
termed  the  administrative  and  the  scientific  ;  the  latter,  of 
course,  having  economic  developments  as  its  ultimate 
object.  The  issue  of  loans  to  fishermen  for  the  purchase 
of  boats  and  gear,  contributing  to  the  cost  of  fishery 


SEA   FISHERIES.  283 

slips  and  piers,  circulating  telegraphic  intelligence,  the 
making  of  by-laws  for  the  regulation  of  the  fisheries, 
the  patrolling  of  the  Irish  fishing  grounds  to  pre- 
vent illegalities,  and  the  attempts  which  are  being 
made  to  develop  the  valuable  Irish  oyster  fishery 
by  the  introduction,  with  modifications  suited  to  our  own 
seaboard,  of  a  system  of  culture  comparable  to  those 
which  are  pursued  with  success  in  France  and  Norway, 
may  be  mentioned  as  falling  under  the  more  directly 
economic  branch  of  our  activities.  Irish  oysters  are 
already  attaining  considerable  celebrity,  owing  to  the 
distance  of  our  oyster  beds  from  contaminating 
influences ;  and  it  is  hoped  that  when  the  Department's 
experiments  are  complete  the  Irish  oyster  will  be  made 
subject  to  direct  control  for  all  its  life,  until  it  is 
despatched  to  market.  Attention  is  also  being  given  to 
the  relative  value  of  seed  oysters,  other  than  native,  for 
relaying  on  Irish  beds. 

On  the  more  directly  scientific  side,  the  Department 
has  undertaken  the  survey  of  the  trawling  grounds 
around  the  coast  to  obtain  an  exact  knowledge  of  the 
movements  of  the  marketable  fish  at  different  times  of 
their  life,  so  that  we  may  be  guided  in  making  by-laws 
and  regulations  by  a  full  knowledge  of  the  times  and 
places  at  which  protection  is  necessary.  The  biological 
and  physical  conditions  of  the  western  seas  are  also 
being  studied  in  special  reference  to  the  mackerel  fishery, 
with  the  object  of  correlating  certain  readily  observable 
phenomena  with  the  movements  of  the  fish,  and  so  of 


284         GOVERNMENT  AND  THE  GOVERNED. 

predicting  the  probable  success  of  a  fishery  in  a  particular 
season.  The  routine  observations  of  the  Department's 
fishery  cruiser  have  been  so  arranged  as  to  synchronise 
with  those  of  other  nations,  in  order  to  assist  the  inter- 
national scheme  of  investigation  now  in  progress,  wher- 
ever its  objects  and  those  of  the  Department  are  the  same. 
While  these  various  practical  projects  have  been 
in  operation,  we  have  done  our  best  to  keep  abreast  of 
the  times  by  sending  missions  to  other  countries,  con- 
sisting of  an  expert  accompanied  by  practical  Irishmen 
who  would  bring  home  information  which  was 
applicable  to  the  conditions  of  our  own  country.  The 
first  batch  of  itinerant  instructors  in  agriculture,  whose 
training  for  the  important  work  of  laying  the  foundations 
for  our  whole  scheme  of  agricultural  instruction  I  have 
referred  to,  were  taken  on  a  continental  tour  by  the 
Professor  of  Agriculture  at  the  Royal  College  of  Science, 
in  order  to  give  special  advantages  to  a  portion  of  our 
outdoor  staff  upon  the  success  of  whose  work  the  rate 
of  our  progress  in  agricultural  development  might  largely 
depend.  And  not  only  have  we  in  our  first  three  years 
gleaned  as  much  information  as  possible  by  sending 
qualified  Irishmen  to  study  abroad  the  industries  in 
which  we  were  particularly  interested,  but  we  also  took 
steps  to  give  the  mass  of  our  people  at  home  an  opportu- 
nity of  studying  these  industries  for  themselves.  With 
the  somewhat  unique  experiment  carried  out  for  this 
object,  I  will  conclude  the  story  of  the  new  Department's 
activities  in  its  early  years. 


THE   CORK   EXHIBITION.  285 

The  part  we  took  at  the  Cork  Exhibition  of 
1902  was  well  understood  in  Ireland,  but  not  perhaps 
elsewhere.  We  secured  a  large  space  both  in  the 
main  Industrial  Hall  and  in  the  grounds,  and  gave  an 
illustration  not  of  what  Ireland  had  done,  but  of  what, 
in  our  opinion,  the  country  might  achieve  in  the  way  of 
agricultural  and  industrial  development  in  the  near 
future.  Exhibiting  on  the  one  hand  our  available 
resources  in  the  way  of  raw  material,  we  gave,  on  the 
other  hand,  demonstrations  of  a  large  number  of  indus- 
tries in  actual  operation.  These  exhibits,  imported  with 
their  workers,  machinery  and  tools,  from  several  Euro- 
pean countries  and  from  Great  Britain,  all  belonged  to 
some  class  of  industry  which,  in  our  belief,  was  capable  of 
successful  development  in  Ireland.  In  the  indoor  part  of 
the  exhibit  there  was  nothing  very  original,  except  per- 
haps in  its  close  relation  to  the  work  of  a  government 
department.  But  what  attracted  by  far  the  greatest 
interest  and  attention  was  a  series  of  object  lessons 
in  many  phases  of  farm  activities,  where,  in  our 
opinion,  great  and  immediate  improvements  might  be 
made.  Here  were  to  be  seen  varieties  of  crops 
under  various  systems  of  treatment,  demonstrations  of 
sheep-dipping,  calf-rearing  on  different  foods,  illustra- 
tions of  the  different  breeds  of  fowl  and  systems  of 
poultry  management,  model  buildings  and  gardens  for 
farmer  and  labourer ;  while  in  separate  buildings  the 
drying  and  pressing  of  fruit  and  vegetables,  the  manufac- 
ture of  butter  and  cheese,  and  a  very  comprehensive 


286         GOVERNMENT  AND  THE  GOVERNED. 

forestry  exhibit  enabled  our  visitors  to  combine  profitable 
suggestion  with,  if  I  may  judge  from  my  frequent 
opportunities  of  observing  the  sightseers  in  whom  I  was 
particularly  interested,  the  keenest  enjoyment. 

We  kept  at  the  Exhibition,  for  six  months,  a  staff  of 
competent  experts,  whose  instructions  were  to  give  to  all- 
comers this  simple  lesson.  They  were  to  bring  home  to  our 
people  that,  here  in  Ireland  before  their  very  eyes,  there 
were  industries  being  carried  on  by  foreigners,  by  English- 
men, by  Scotchmen,  and  in  some  instances  by  Irishmen, 
but  in  all  cases  by  men  and  women  who  had  no  advan- 
tage over  our  workers  except  that  they  had  the  technical 
training  which  it  was  the  desire  of  the  Department  to 
give  to  the  workers  of  Ireland  The  officials  of  the 
Department  entered  into  the  spirit  of  this  scheme  enthu- 
siastically and  cheerfully,  some  of  them,  in  addition  to 
their  ordinary  work,  turning  the  office  into  a  tourist 
agency  for  these  busy  months.  With  the  generous  help 
of  the  railway  companies  they  organised  parties  of  far- 
mers, artisans,  school  teachers,  members  of  the  statutory 
committees,  and,  in  fact,  of  all  to  whom  it  was  of  import- 
ance to  give  this  object  lesson  upon  the  relations  between 
practical  education  and  the  promotion  of  industry.  Nearly 
100,000  persons  were  thus  moved  to  Cork  and  back 
before  the  Exhibition  closed — an  achievement  largely 
due  to  the  assistance  given  by  the  Irish  Agricultural 
Organisation  Society  and  the  clergy  throughout  the 
country. 

This  experiment,  both  in  its  conception  and  in  its 


THINGS  AND  '  IDEES.'  287 

results,  was  perhaps  unique.  There  were  not  wanting 
critics  of  the  new  Department  who  stood  aghast  at  so 
large  an  expenditure  upon  temporary  edifices  and  a 
passing  show;  but  those  who  are  in  touch  with  its 
educational  work  know  that  this  novel  application  of 
State  assistance  fulfilled  its  purpose.  It  helped  substan- 
tially to  generate  a  belief  in,  and  stimulate  a  demand  for, 
technical  instruction  which  it  will  take  us  many  years 
adequately  to  supply. 

An  American  visitor  who,  as  I  afterwards  learned, 
takes  an  active  part  in  the  discussion  of  the  rural  prob- 
lems of  his  own  country,  disembarked  at  Queenstown 
in  order  to  '  take  in '  the  Cork  Exhibition.  In  his  rush 
through  Dublin  he  '  took  in '  the  Department  and  the 
writer.  '  Mr.  Vice-President,'  he  said,  before  the  hand- 
shaking was  completed,  '  I  have  visited  all  the  great 
Expositions  held  in  my  time.  I  have  been  to  the  Cork 
Exposition.  I  often  saw  more  things,  but  never  more 
idees.' 

With  this  characteristically  rapid  appreciation  of  a 
movement  which  seeks  to  turn  Irish  thought  to  action, 
my  strange  visitor  vanished  as  suddenly  as  he  came. 


Those  whose  sympathy  with  Ireland  has  induced  them 
to  persevere  through  the  mass  of  details  with  which  this 
story  of  small  beginnings  is  pieced  together  may  wonder 
why  the  bearing  of  hopeful  efforts  for  bringing  prosperity 
and  contentment  to  Ireland  upon  the  mental  attitude  of 
millions  of  Irishmen  scattered  throughout  the  British 


288          GOVERNMENT  AND  THE  GOVERNED. 

Empire  and  the  United  States,  and  so  upon  the  lives 
of  the  countries  in  which  they  have  made  their  homes, 
is  apparently  ignored.  I  fully  recognise  the  vast 
importance  of  the  subject.  A  book  dealing  com- 
prehensively with  the  actual  and  potential  influence 
of  Irish  intellect  upon  English  politics  at  home,  and 
upon  the  politics  of  the  United  States,  a  carefully 
reasoned  estimate  of  the  part  which  Irish  intellect  is 
qualified,  and  which  I  firmly  believe  it  is  destined,  to 
play  wherever  the  civilisation  of  the  world  is  to  be  under 
the  control  of  the  English-speaking  peoples — more  espe- 
cially where  these  peoples  govern  races  which  speak 
other  tongues  and  see  through  other  eyes — a  clear  and 
striking  exposition  of  the  true  relation  between  the 
small  affairs  of  the  small  island  and  that  greater  Ireland 
which  takes  its  inspiration  from  the  sorrows,  the  passions, 
the  endeavours,  and  the  hopes  of  those  who  stick  to  the 
old  home — such  a  book  would  possess  a  deep  human 
interest,  and  would  make  a  high  and  wide  appeal. 
Nevertheless,  I  feel  that  at  the  present  time  the  most 
urgent  need,  from  every  point  of  view  on  which  I  have 
touched,  is  to  focus  the  thought  available  for  the  Irish 
Question  upon  the  definite  work  of  a  reconstruction  of 
Irish  life. 

Such  is  the  purpose  of  this  book.  I  do  not  wish  to 
attach  any  exaggerated  importance  to  the  scheme  of 
social  and  economic  reform  of  which  I  have  attempted 
to  give  a  faithful  account ;  nor  is  it  in  their  practical 
achievement,  be  it  great  or  small,  that  the  initiators 


A    BACKWARD    GLANCE.  289 

and  organisers  of  the  new  movement  take  most  pride. 
What  these  Irishmen  are  proud  of  is  the  manner  in 
which  the  people  have  responded  to  their  efforts  to  bring 
Irish  sentiment  into  an  intimate  and  helpful  relation 
with  Irish  economic  problems.  They  had  to  reckon  with 
that  greatest  of  hindrances  to  the  spirit  of  enterprise,  a 
rooted  belief  in  the  potentiality  of  government  to  bring 
material  prosperity  to  our  doors.  As  I  have  pointed 
out,  the  practical  demonstration  which  Ireland  had 
received  of  the  power  of  government  to  inflict  last- 
ing economic  injury  gave  rise  to  this  belief;  and  I 
have  noted  the  present  influences  to  which  it  seems  to 
owe  its  continuance  until  to-day.  I  believe  that,  if  any 
enduring  interest  attaches  to  the  story  which  I  have 
told,  it  will  consist  in  the  successive  steps  by  which  this 
initial  difficulty  has  been  overcome. 

Let  me  summarise  in  a  few  words  what  has  been,  so 
far,  actually  accomplished.  Those  who  did  the  work  of 
which  I  have  written  first  launched  upon  Irish  life  a 
scheme  of  organised  self-help  which,  perhaps  more  by 
good  luck  than  design,  proved  to  be  in  accordance  with 
the  inherited  instincts  of  the  people,  and,  therefore,  moved 
them  to  action.  Next  they  called  for,  and  in  due  season 
obtained,  a  department  of  government  with  adequate 
powers  and  means  to  aid  in  developing  the  resources  of 
the  country,  so  far  as  this  end  could  be  attained  without 
transgressing  the  limits  of  beneficial  State  interference 
with  the  business  of  the  people.  In  its  constitution  this 
department  was  so  linked  with  the  representative  insti- 


29  o 


GOVERNMENT  AND  THE  GOVERNED. 


tutions  of  the  country  that  the  people  soon  began  to  feel 
that  they  largely  controlled  its  policy  and  were  responsible 
for  its  success.  Meanwhile,  the  progress  of  economic 
thought  in  the  country  had  made  such  rapid  strides 
that,  in  the  administration  of  State  assistance,  the 
principle  of  self-help  could  be  rigidly  insisted  upon  and 
was  willingly  submitted  to.  The  result  is  that  a  situa- 
tion has  been  created  which  is  as  gratifying  as  it  may 
appear  to  be  paradoxical.  Within  the  scope  and  sphere 
of  the  movement  the  Irish  people  are  now,  without  any 
sacrifice  of  industrial  character,  combining  reliance  upon 
government  with  reliance  upon  themselves. 

That  a  movement  thus  conceived  should  so  rapidly 
have  overcome  its  initial  difficulties  and  should,  I  might 
almost  add,  have  passed  beyond  the  experimental  stage, 
will  suggest  to  any  thoughtful  reader  that  above  and 
beyond  the  removal  by  legislation  of  obstacles  to  progress 
— and  much  has  been  accomplished  in  this  way  of  recent 
years — there  must  have  been  new,  positive  influences  at 
work  upon  the  national  mind.  These  will  be  found  in 
the  growing  recognition  of  the  fact  that  the  path  of 
progress  lies  along  distinctively  Irish  lines,  and  that 
otherwise  it  will  not  be  trodden  by  the  Irish  people. 
Much  good  in  the  same  direction  has  been  done, 
too,  by  the  generous  and  authoritative  admission  by 
England  that  the  future  development  of  Ireland  should 
be  assisted  and  promoted  f  with  a  full  and  constant 
regard  to  the  special  traditions  of  the  country.'  *  But 

*  Speech  of  the  Lord  Lieutenant  to  the  Incorporated  Law  Society, 
November  2oth,  1902.    See  also  p.  170. 


IRELAND   RE-CREATED   FROM   WITHIN.  2QI 

after  all,  while  these  concessions  to  Irish  sentiment, 
vitally  important  though  they  be,  may  speed  us  on  our 
road  to  national  regeneration,  they  will  not  take  us  far. 
It  remains  for  us  Irishmen  to  realise — and  the  chief 
value  of  all  the  work  I  have  described  consists  in  the 
degree  in  which  it  forces  us  to  realise — the  responsibility 
which  now  rests  with  ourselves.  We  have  been  too 
long  a  prey  to  that  deep  delusion,  which,  because  the  ills 
of  the  country  we  love  were  in  past  days  largely 
caused  from  without,  bids  us  look  to  the  same  source 
for  their  cure.  The  true  remedies  are  to  be  sought 
elsewhere  ;  for,  however  disastrous  may  have  been 
the  past,  the  injury  was  moral  rather  than  material,  and 
the  opportunity  has  now  arrived  for  the  patient  building 
up  again  of  Irish  character  in  those  qualities  which  win 
in  the  modern  struggle  for  existence.  The  field  for  that 
great  work  is  clear  of  at  least  the  worst  of  its  many 
historic  encumbrances.  Ireland  must  be  re-created  from 
within.  The  main  work  must  be  done  in  Ireland, 
and  the  centre  of  interest  must  be  Ireland.  When 
Irishmen  realise  this  truth,  the  splendid  human  power 
of  their  country,  so  much  of  which  now  runs  idly  or 
disastrously  to  waste,  will  be  utilised  ;  and  we  may  then 
look  with  confidence  for  the  foundation  of  a  fabric  of 
Irish  prosperity,  framed  in  constructive  thought,  and  laid 
enduringly  in  human  character. 

THE    END. 


INDEX 


PAGE 

A.  E.  (George  W.  Russell)  200 

Agitation  as  a  policy,  .     82,  83 

Agricultural  Board,   228,  234,  seq.  269 
Agriculture  :— 
Agricultural  Holdings  :-— 
Improvement  of,    .          .   46  seq. 
Transfer  of  peasants    to 

new  farms,        .  .  48  seq. 

Agricultural  Organisation : 
Denmark,  .  .         131 

Department  of  Agricul- 
ture and  farmers' 
societies,  .  .  241 

England,  Mr.  Hanbury's 
and  Lord  Onslow's 
views,  .  .  242 

Irish  Agricultural  Or- 
ganisation Society  (see 
that  title) 

Societies  .  .     44, 45 

Co-operation  (see  that  title). 
Department  of  Agriculture 
and  Technical  Instruc- 
tion (see  that  title) 
Depression  in,         .  .         179 

Education  in  relation  to,     .       126, 
264  seq.  269 

Exodus  of  Rural  Popula- 
tion     ...          39 
State- Aid,     .  .   45,211 

Tillage,  decrease  of,     .  42 

Agriculture    and    Technical 
Instruction  (Ireland)  Act 

224,  227,  236,  238 

Albert  Institute,  Glasnev in,  .  230,  271 
Altruism,    appeal  to    in  co- 
operation, .  .         210 
America,  Irish  in :    .  .          72 
Causes  of  their  success  and 

failure,    .  .  .55  seq. 

Irish  in  American  politics,  70  seq. 
Loss  of  religion  in,  .         Ill 

Anderson,  R.  A. : — 
Co-operative  movement,    .  184, 190 
Irish  Agricultural  Organi- 
sation Society,     .  .         200 
Andrews,  Mr.  Thomas  :— 

Recess  Committee,  .         219 

A  nti-English  Sentiment  :— 
Irish  in  America  and,          .          72 
Nature  and  cause,  .          13 


PAGE 

Anti-Treating  League,  .  114 

Arnott,  Sir  John : — 

Recess  Committee,  .  218 

Art,  modern  ecclesiastical  art 

in  Ireland,  .  .  108 

Association,  economic,  value 

of,  ...  167 

Associative  qualities  of  the 

Irish,  .  .166 

BACON  Curing:— 

Denmark,  .  .  131, 194 

Bagot,  Canon : — 

Creamery  movement,         .         189 

Balf our,  Arthur :—    .  .         168 

Irish  policy,  .  .  243,  244 

Balf  our,  Gerald :—     .  .  243,  256 

Agriculture  and  Technical 

Instruction  (Ireland)  Act,  225,  233 
Local  Government  Act,  224, 238, 240 
Policy  of  explained,  .  225 

Recess     Committee      Pro- 
posals; Bill,         .  .         224 
Banks,  agricultural  credit,    .  195  seq. 
Barley   Experiments  of  the 
Department  of   Agricul- 
ture,       .              .              .282 
Belfast   Chamber    of    Com- 
merce and  Homo  Rule,     .          67 
Berkeley,  Bishop  :— 
Irish  priests,           .             .         141 
On  "  Mending  our  state,"    .  6 
"  Parties  "  and  "  politics,"  .          63 
Bessborough       Commission, 

tenants  improvements,  &c.          22 
Board  of  National  Education,         126 
Board  of  Technical  Instruc- 
tion,        .  .  228, 234  seq.  257 
Bodley's     France,    Madame 

Darmesteter's  review,      .         242 
Boer     war    and    the    Irish 

attitude,  .  .  9 

Bogs,  utilisation  of,  .  .         249 

Boycotting,  .  87 

Bright,  John  :— 

Peasant  proprietorship,      .          25 
Brooke,  Stopford,      .  .          92 

Buckle,   personal   factor    in 

history,  .  .          27 

Bulvver  Lytton,          .  .          34 

Burke,  .  137 


294 


INDEX. 


Butt,  Isaac, 
Butter,  Danish, 


78 
131 


CADOGAN,  Lord,         .  .        224 

Catholic  ABsociation,  .  99 

Catholic   Emancipation  Act, 

104,  125, 132 

Catholic  University  (see  Uni- 
versity Question). 
Celtic  Race,  Harold  Frederic's 

opinion,  .  .  161  seq. 

Character :  — 
Associative  qualities  of  the 

Irish,       .  .  .166 

Education  and  character,  .         144 
Gaelic  Revival,  effect  of  on 

national  character,  .  148,  155 

Industrial  character,  .  18 

Irish  inefficiency  a  problem 

of  character,        .  .          32 

Irish  question  a  problem  of 

character.  .  32, 59, 164 

Lack  of  initiative  in  Irish 

character,  .  .         163 

Moral    timidity    of     Irish 

character,  .        64, 65, 80, 81 

Prosperity  of  Ireland,  to  be 

founded  on  character,     .         291 
Roman     Catholicism    and 

Irish  character,    .          101-105, 110 
Chesterfield,  Lord : — 
Education  as  the  cause  of 
difference  in,  the  charac- 
ter of  men,  .  .         144 
Christian  Brothers'  Schools,  .         131 
Christian  Socialists, .              .         184 
Church-building  in  Ireland,  .         107 
Church  Disestablishment  Act, 
1869.  —  Land      Purchase 
Clauses,  .  25 
Clan-System  in  Ireland,         .  75 
Clergy,  Roman  Catholic  :— 
Action  and  attitude  towards 

questions  of  the  day          .         105 
Authority,  .          96, 105  seq. 

Moral  influence,     .  .  115, 116 

Political  influence,  .         117 

Temperance  reform,  .  112, 114 

College   of   Science  and  De- 
partment of  Agriculture,         229 
Colonies,  history  or  the  Irish 

in,  ...  72seg. 

Commercial  Restrictions- 
effect  of  on  Irish  industrial 
character,  .  .  17  seq. 

Con  O'Neal  forbids  his  poster- 
ity to  build  houses,  etc.,  .  57 
Congested  Districts  Board  :— 
Agricultural  banks,  loans  to         197 
Department  of  Agriculture 

and,          .  .  .245 

Land  Act  ( 1903)  and,  .         245 

Success  of, .  .  .  243,  244 

Convents   and    Monasteries, 

increase  of,  .  .         108 

Co-operative  Movement  :— 
Agricultural  Banks,  .  195  seq. 


Co-operative  Movement—  cow*. 
Agricultural         depression, 

cause  of,  .  .         179 

Altruism,  appeal  to,  .         210 

Anderson,  R.  A.,      .         184,  190,  '200 
Associative     qualities      of 

Irish,        .  .         166,  178,  186 

Beginnings,  .  .         178 

Combination,  necessity  of,  .         181 
Co-operative    Union,   Man- 

chester,  .  .  .184 

Craig,   Mr.  E.   T.,  and  the 

Vandeleur  Estate,  .         184 

Creameries,  .  .  187  seq. 

Denmark,  .  .  .  131,  194 

Educating  adults,  .  .         177 

English  co-operation,  .  166,  184 

Finlay,  Father  Thomas,  119,  192,  218 
Gaelic  Be  vival  and,  .149  seq. 

Gray,  Mr.  T.  C.,      .  184 

Holyoake,  Mr.,        .  .         184 

Hughes,  Mr.  Tom,  .  .         184 

Irish  Agricultural  Organi- 

sation   Society  (see  that 

title). 

Irish  Homestead,    .  .  190,  202 

Ludlow,  Mr.,  .  .         184 

Marum,  Mr.  Mulhallen,      .         189 
Middlemen,  .  .         180 

Monteagle,  Lord,    .  .         184 

Moral  effects,          .  .  207,  208 

Neale,  Mr.  Vansittart,         .         184 
Necessity    of    co-operation 

for  small  landholders,       .   44  seq. 
Production  and  distribution 

problems,  .  .  179,  180 

Roman  Catholic  clergy  and,        119 
State-aid  side,         .  .    45,  165 

Success,  causes  of  .  .  210,  211 

Vandeleur  estate   commu- 

nity,        .  .  .184 

Village  libraries,    .  199 

Wolff,  Mr.  Henry  W.,          .         199 
Yerburgh,  Mr.,       .  .         199 

Cork  :- 
Exhibition,     Department's 

Exhibit,  .  .        119,  285  seq. 

Craig,  Mr.  E.  T.— 

Co-operative  Movement     .         184 
Creameries,  co-operative,  be- 

ginnings, .  .  187  seq. 

Crop   improvement  schemes 

of  the  Department,  .        282 

Council  of  Agriculture,  .        228. 


DAIRYING  Industry—  Co-opera- 

tion and,               .  .  187  seq. 
Dane,  Mr.  :— 

Recess  Committee,  .         218 

Darmesteter,  Madame,  Syn- 

dicats  agricoles,  .  .         -42 

Davis,  Thomas  :—      .  .         137 

Political  Methods,  .     77,  83 
Denmark  :— 

Co-operation  in,      .  .  131,  194 

High  Schools,          .  .         131 


INDEX. 


295 


PAGE 

Department   of   Agriculture 
and    Technical    Instruc- 
tion:—    .  .60 
Agriculture  and  Technical 
Instruction  (Ireland)  Act, 

224,227,236,238 

Agricultural  Board,  .        228, 

234  seq.  257 

Agricxiltural  education,      .  236, 237, 
264  seq.  269, 272 

Agricultural  Organisation,  241 
Albert  Institute,  Glasnevin,  230,271 
Balfour,  Gerald,  .  .  225, 233 

Board  of  Technical  Instruc- 
tion,        ,  .   228,  234  seq.  257 
College  of  Science  and,       .         229 
Congested  Districts  Board 

and  Department,  .         245 

Consultative  Committee  for 
Co-ordinating  Education,        236, 
237, 272 

Constitution,  etc.,  .  .         228 

Co-operative        movement 
and    the   benefits   of  or- 
ganisation, .  .         241 
Cork  Exhibition  exhibit,    .        119, 
285  seq. 

Council  of  Agriculture,       .        228, 
232  seq.  257 

Crop  improvement  schemes         282 
Domestic   economy   teach- 
ing,         .  .  .272 
Early  days'  experiences,      .  247  seq. 
Educational  policy,  .        236, 
237, 272, 274 

Educational  work,  .         262 

Endowment,  etc.,    .  .         231 

Home  Industries,   .  .         275 

Industrial    education    and 
industrial  life,      .  .         130 

ntermediate        Education 
Board  and,  .  .  235, 237 

Itinerant  instruction,  .  126,  270 

Irish  Agricultural  Organisa- 
tion Society  and, .  .         203 
Live  Stock  Schemes,  .         279 
Local  Committees,  .         261 
Local  Government  Act  and 

work  of  Department,  .  239 
Metropolitan  School  of  Art  230 
Munster  Institute,  Cork, 

and.          .  .  .230,274 

Parliamentary  representa- 
tion, .  .  .  220, 228 
Powers,  .  .  .  229  seq. 
Provincial  Committees,  .  234 
Purposes,  .  .  .  228 
Recess  Committee's  Recom- 
mendations, .  .  220 
Royal  Dublin  Society  and,  .  279 
Rural  life  improvement,  .  159 
Sea  Fisheries,  .  .  282 
Staff.  .  .  .228 
Teachers,  .  .  .267 
Technical  instruction,  130,  228,  234, 
seq.,  257,  263,  267,  279 
Work  already  accomplished,  278  seq. 


PACK 

Desmolins,  M.  :- 

English  love  of  home,          .          53 
Devon  Commission,  tenants' 

improvements,     .  .          22 

Dineen,  Rev.  P.  S.  :— 

Editor  O'Rahilly's  poems,    .          76 
Dixon,  Sir  Daniel  :— 

Recess  Committee,  .         218 

Domestic  economy  teaching,  .         272 
Drink  Evil  :- 

Anti-Treating  League,         .         114 

Causes,       .  .  .         112 

Roman  Catholic  Clergy's     . 

influence,  .  .  112,  114 

Dudley,  Lord,  .  170,  290 

Duffer <n,  Lord  :  — 

Effect  of    commercial   re- 
strictions in  Ireland,        .  20 
Duffy,  Sir  C.  G.          .              .  77 
Dunraven  Conference,            8, 10, 207 

ECONOMIC   system   in    Eng- 
land, individualism  of,     .         166 
Economic  thought  :— 
Influence        of        Roman 

Catholicism,        .  .  101  seq. 

Lack  of  in  Ireland,  .  133  seq. 

Education:— 

Agricultural  instruction,    .        126, 
264  seq.  269 

Board  of  National   Educa- 
tion,        .  .  .126 
Christian  Brothers,  .         131 
Commissioners  of  National 
Education,               .              .          235 
Consultative  Committee  for 
co-ordinating  Education,         236, 
237, 272 

Continental  methods,          .         129 
Defects  of  present  system, .         128 
Denmark  High  Schools,     .         131 
Department     of     Agricul- 
ture's policy  and  work,  .        236, 
237,  262,  272, 274 

Economic,  .  .  130,133 

Education  Bill,       .  .          99 

English  education  in   Ire- 
land,       .  .  .122 
Influence    of    on    national 

life.          ...          59 
Industrial,  .  .130,264 

Intermediate       Education 

system,  .         128, 235, 237 

Irish  education  schemes,  .  123  seq. 
Itinerant  instruction,  .  126, 270 
Keenan,  Sir  Patrick,  .  126 
Kildare  Street  Society,  .  123 
Literary  Education,  .  131 

Lord  Chesterfield  on  Edu- 
cation .  .144 
Manual   and  Practical  In- 
struction     in      Primary 
Schools,  Commission,       .  128, 129 
Maynooth,  influence  of,       .        134- 
136, 138, 139 

Monastic   and  Conventual 
institutions,         .  .         108 


296 


INDEX. 


PAGE 

Education—  continued. 
National  factor  in  national 

education,  .  .  152,  153 

Practical,  .  .  129  seq. 

Reports  of  Commissions,     .         127 
Roman    Catholics,    higher 

education,  .  97,  132,  133 

Royal  University,  .  .         128 

Technical  instruction.  2-28,  234  seq., 

257,263 

Trinity    College,   influence 

of,  .  .         134,  136  seq. 

University  :— 
Place  of  the  University  in 

education,         .  .         133 

Royal  Commission  on  Uni- 

versity Education,         .         128 
Wyse's  Scheme,      .  .         125 

Education  Bill,  .  .          99 

Emigration,  causes  of,  etc.,    .   40,  116 
England  :— 
Anti-English  sentiment   in 

in  Ireland,  .  .     13.  72 

Co-operation  in,  166,  184,  192,  206,  242 
Economic  system,  individu- 

alism of,  .  .  .         166 

Misunderstanding  of  Irish 

question,  .  .     7  seq. 

Ewart,  Sir  William  :— 

Recess  Committee,  .         218 

Experimental  Plots    of    the 

Department,        .  .         281 

FERGUSON,  SIR  SAMUEL  :— 

National  sentiment,  .         154 

Field,  Mr.  William,  .  .         217 

Finlay,  Father  Thomas  :—     .  119,  208 
Irish  Agricultural  Organisa- 

tion Society,          .  .         192 

Recess  Committee  .        218 

Fisheries  —  Department  of 
Agriculture,  development 
scheme,  .  .  .  282  seq 

Flax  improvement  Schemes,  .        282 
Fortnightly  Review  :  — 
Harold  Frederic    on    Irish 

Question,  .  .         162 

France,  syndicats  agricoles,  .         242 
Franchise  extension  in  1885. 
effects  of  on  Irish  political 
thought,  .  .78 

Frederic,  Harold  :— 

"Views  on  Irish  question     .  161  seq. 
Free  Trade,  effect  of  in  Ire- 

land,       ...          19 


GAELIC  Revival  :—    . 
Appeal  to  the  individual    .         155 
Co-operative       movement 

ana,         .  .  .  149  seq. 

Gaelic  League,   aims    and 

objects,  .  .  .150 

Hyde,  Douglas,      .  .         151 

Irish  language  as  a  com- 

mercial medium,  .         158 

National  factor  in  educa- 

tion, importance  of,          .         153 


Gaelic  Revival-  continued. 
Politics  and  the  Gaelic  re- 
vival,      .  .  .156, 157 
Rural  life,  rehabilitation,   .          159 
Gill,  Mr.  T.  P.  :— 

Recess  Committee,  .        219 

Gladstone:—  .  .          85 

Belfast  Chamber   of  Com- 
merce,   Home    Rule  de- 
putation, .  .          67 
Home  Rule,    attitude    to- 
wards,    .              .  .3,66,67 
Tenants'  improvements,      .          22 
Glasnevin,  Albert  Institute, .  230, 271 
Grattan,        .             .  .137 
Gray,  Mr.  J.  C.  :— 

Co-operative  movement, .         184 
Grazing,  increa.se  of,  .          42 

Grundtvig,  Bishop,    .  .         131 

HAXBURY,  MR.  :—     .  .        251 

Agricultural  Societies,  ne- 
cessity of,  .  .         242 

Suppression  of  Swine  Fever,  252 
Hannon,  Mr.  P.  J.-LA.O.S.  .  200 
Harrington.  Mr.  T.  C.  :— 

Recess  Committee.  .         218 

Healy,  Archbishop,  work  for 

Ireland,      .  .  .118 

Hegarty,    Father,    work   for 

Ireland,      .  .  .119 

Historical  Grievances,  14,  17, 

59,  104,  seq.  120, 147 

Holdings,  small,  problem  of,  .  46 

Holyoake,  Mr.: — 

Co-operative  Movement,  .  184 
Domestic  Economy  Teaching,  272 
Home :  Improvement  of,  .  159 

Irish  Conception  of,  .  53 

Irish,      "  hornelessness     at 

home,"  cause  of  .     57,  58 

Home  Industries,       .  .  192, 275 

Home  Rule :— Bill  1886,  .          61 

Gladstone's  attitude  to  the 
question  .  .  3 

Nationalist    tactics    as    a 
means  of  attaining  .          81 

Rosebery,  Lord,  attitude  to 
the  question,        .  .  4 

Ulster  aud  Home  Rule,     66,  86  xcq. 

Unionist  attitude  towards, .  35 
Hughes.  Tom,  Co-operative 

Movement, 
Hyde,  Douglas,  .  .         151 

Individualism  of  English 
economic  svstem,  ,  166 

Industrial  character  of  the 
Irish,  effect  of  commercial 
restrictions,  .  18 

Industrial  leadership,  and 
political  leadership,  .  212 

Industry  :— 

Commercial  Restrictions,    .      16-20 
Education   and    Industrial 

Life,         .  .  .130 

Free  Trade,  effect  of,  .          19 


INDEX. 


297 


PAGE 

Industry — continued. 
Gaelic  League  and,  .         155 

Home  Rule  and, 

Peasant  Industries  .          52 

Protestantism  and  Industry         100 
Roman     Catholicism     and 

Industry  .  100, 103  sea. 

State-Aid  .  .          45 

Initiative,    lack  of  in   Irish 

character,  .  .  .163 

Intermediate  Education    128,  235,  237 
Irish   Agricultural    Organis- 
ation Society : —      .  .         149 
Agricultural  Banks,  195  seg. 
Agricultural  Organisation  :— 
Denmark,              .              .         131 
Department  of  Agriculture 

and  Farmers'  Societies,          241 
England,   Mr.  Hanbury's 

view,    .  .  .242 

Onslow,  Lord,  opinion,     .         242 
Welsh  Co.  Councils,  and,          242 
Anderson,  R.  A.,     .  .200 

Central  body,  necessity  for  .         194 
Cork  Exhibition,  tours  or- 
ganised by,  .  .         286 
Department  of  Agricultxire 

and,         .  .  .203 

Federations,  principal,        .         193 

Finlay,  Father  Thomas,      .        119, 

192,208,218 

Funds,        .  .  .202se#. 

Gaelic  revival  and  the  co- 
operative movement,        .  149  se<?. 
Hannon,  Mr.  P.  J.,  .         200 

Inauguration,         .  .         191 

Irish  Homestead,  .  .  190,202 

Monteagle,  Lord,    .  .         192 

Roman  Catholic  clergy  and 

the  movement,  .         119 

Rural    life    social    move- 
ments,    .  ,  .159,  199 
Russell,  George  \V.  (A.  E.),          200 
Societies,  number,  etc.        .        192 
Staff,  &c.    .              .  .200 
Village  libraries,     .  .         199 
Irish  Homestead,       .             .  190,  202 
Irish    language    as    a    com- 
mercial medium,              .         158 
"Irish   night"  in   House  of 

Commons,  .  .  2 

Irish  Question  :— 
Anomalies,  .  .  33 

Character,  a  problem  of,   32,  59,  164 
Emigration,  .  .          40 

English  misunderstanding,     7  seq. 
Frederic,  Harold,  diagnosis 

by,  .  .  .  161  seq. 

Gaelic  Revival  and,  .         148 

Historical  grievances,          .   16  seq. 
Home  Rule  (see  that  title) 
Human  problem,    .  .  2 

Land  Act  marks  a  new  era  in,        11 
Land  system  (see  that  title). 
Our  ignorance   about  our- 
selves.     .  .  .32 
Parnell's  death,  effect  of,    .  5 


PAGE 

Irish  Question— continued, 
Political     remedies,     Irish 

belief  in,  .  ,33 

Rural  life,  problem,  39.  57,  263 

Sentiment,  force  of,  .  15 

Ulster's  attitude  important,          38 

Itinerant  Instructors,        126,  127,  271, 

284 

JOHNSON,  DR.,  on  "  economy,"      273 

KANE,  REV.  R.  R. :—  .        157 

Recess  Committee,  .         218 

Keenan,  Sir  Patrick  : — 

Itinerant  instructors,  126, 127 

Kelly,  Dr.  (Bishop  of  Ross)  :— 

Work  for  Ireland,    .  .       118 

Kildare     Street     School  of 

Domestic  Economy.  .         274 

Kildare  Street  Society,  123-125 

LAND  ACTS  :— 
1870,   23 ;    1881,  23,  24 ;    1891, 
Congested  Districts,  .         243 

1903:-  .          10,11,42,48,245 

Marks  a  new  era  in  Ireland,        11 
Transfer   of    peasants  to 

new  farms,        .  .          48 

Land  Conference :—  .          93 

Landed  gentry  not  to  be  ex- 
patriated, .  .          85 
Nationalist     leaders'    atti- 
tude,        .              .  .89 
Land  Purchase  Acts,               .          25 
Land   Question  and    Tenure 

Question,  .     41.  48 

Land  system : —         .  .17 

Causes  of   failure  in  Irish 

land  system. 

Dual  ownership,     .  .          25 

Land  Acts:  1870,  23;  1881, 
23,  24;  1891.  243;  1903,  10, 
11,42,48,245. 

Land  Purchase  Acts,  .          25 

Legislation,  .  .   23  seq. 

Peasant        proprietorship, 

germs  of,  .  .25 

Tenure  question,    .  .41,42 

Lawless,  Emily : — 

"With  the  Wild  Geese,"     .          92 
Le  Bon,  "  La  Psychologie  de 

la  Foule,"  .  .         167 

Lea,  Sir  Thomas  :•— 

Recess  Committee,  ,         218 

Leadership  in  Ireland,  politi- 
cal and  industrial,  .         212 
Lecky,  Mr. : — 

Irish  grievances,     .  .          14 

Kildare  Street  Society,       .         124 
Live     stock      improvement 

schemes,  .  .         279 

Liverpool  Financial  Reform 

Association,         .  .         127 

Local  Government : —  .          83 

Balfour,  Mr.  Gerald,       224, 238, 240 

Department  of  Agriculture 

and  local  effort,   .  .         259 


298 


INDEX. 


PAGE 

Local  Government/— continued. 

Educative  effect  of,             .  90 

Nationalist  leaders'  attitude  88 

Success  in  working,              .  88, 240 

Lucas,  Mr.,  ...  77 

Ludlow,  Mr.  :— 

Co-operative  movement,     .  184 

MCCARTHY,  MR.  JUSTIN:— 
Recess  Committee,  .          215 

Manchester,  Co-operative 
Union  .  .  .  184 

Manual  and  Practical  In- 
struction in  Primary 
Schools'  Commission,  128, 129 

Manures,  Artificial— Depart- 
ment of  Agriculture's  en- 
couragement in  the  use  of,  282 

Marum,  Mr.  Mulhallen— 
Co-operative  Movement     .         189 

Maynooth,  influence  of,         .         134 
136, 138,  139 

Mayo,  Lord  :— 
Recess  Committee,  .         218 

Memorandum  on  Agricul- 
tural Education,  .  269 

Metropolitan  School  of 
Art,  .  -230 

Middlemen,  .  .         180 

Monasteries  and  Convents, 
increase  of,  .  .  108 

Monteagle,  Lord  :— 
Co-operative  movement,    .         184 
I.A.O.S.  President,  .         192 

Recess  Committee  .         218 

Moral  timidity  of  Irish 
character,  65, 80,  81 

Morals  :— 

Roman     Catholic    Clergy's 
influence  on,  115,  116 

Mulhall,  Mr.  Michael  :— 
Recess  Committee,  .         219 

Munster  Institute,  Cork,  230,  274 

Musgrave,  Sir  James:  — 
Recess  Committee,     .          .         219 

NATIONAL  EDUCATION  BOARD, 

Agricultural  Teaching,       .         126 
Nationalist  Party  :— 

Home  Rule,  .  35, 84 

Land  Conference  and, 

Local  Government  and, 

Policy, 

Qualifications  of  leaders,          90, 91 

Recess  Committee  and,  222 

Responsibility  of  leaders,  81 

Tactics : —  .  .  84  seq. 

Effect  of  on  Irish  political 

character,         .  .          80 

Nationality  :— 

Education  and  nationality,  152  seq. 

Expansion  of,  outside  party 
politics,  .  .         154 

Modern  conception  of  Irish 

nationality,          .  .          76 

Neale,  Vansittart  :— 

Co-operative  movement,     .         184 


PAGE 
O'CONNELL,  ...  77 

O'Conor  Don : — 

Recess  Committee,  .         218 

O'Dea,  Dr.  :— 
University       Commission, 

statements,          .  .  109, 141 

ODonnell,  Dr.  :— 
Ploughing   up   of    grazing 

lands,       .  .43 

O'Donovan,  Father,  .         119 

O'Dwyer,  Dr. : — 
Evidence       before       Uni- 
versity Commission,         .         140 
O'Gara,  Dr.  :— 
On  the  cultivation  of  the 

land,        .  .  43 

O'Grady,  Standish,    .  .         154 

Onslow,  Lord : — 
Agricultural   organisation, 

benefit  of,  .  .         242 

O'Rahilly,  Egan:— 

Lament  for  the  Irish  clans,          27 
Oyster  Culture,         .  .         283 

PARNELL:  -  .  .     48,78 

Downfall,  effect  on  national 

idea  and  aims,     .  .  5, 79, 80 

Peasant  industries,  necessity 

for,          ...  52 

Peasant  Proprietary  :— 
Agricultural   organisation, 

necessity  of ,  .44  seq. 

Bright,  John,  and, .  ,  '        25 

Peasant  industries,  neces- 
sity of,    .  .  .          52 
Problem   of   next   genera- 
tion,        .              .  .     50,  51 
Penal  laws,  effect  of,              .  104, 132 
Plantation  system,                .          76 
Politics  :— 

Agitation  as  a  policy,  .  82,  83 
America,  Irish  in  politics  in,  70  seq. 
Gaelic  revival  and  politics, .  156, 157 
Irishmen  as  politicians,  .  69  seq. 
"  Irish  night  "  in  House  of 

Commons,  .  .          92 

Nationalist  leaders'   effect 

on  Irish  political  character,        80 
Obsession  of  the  Irish  mind 

by  politics,  .  59,  61  seq. 

"One-man"  system,  .          79 

Political  leadership  and  in- 
dustrial leadership,          .         212 
Political    remedies,     Irish 

belief  in.  .  .          33 

Political  "  wilderness,"  .  91 
"  Priest  in  politics,"  .  117 

Separation,  .  .          87 

Ulster     Liberal     Unionist 

Association,         .  .          68 

Unionists  (Irish) : — 
Industrial  element  and,  .     67,  68 
Influence  in  Irish  life,      .  63  seq. 
Population.  —  Relation       Of 

population  to  area,  .          49 

Potato  culture  improvement 

schemes,  .  .         282 


INDEX. 


299 


PAGE 

Production  and  distribution, 

problems.  .  .  179, 180 

Protestantism : — 

Duty  of,     .  .  .119 

Ulster,       .  .  .98.99 

RAIFFEISEN  System  of  bank- 
ing,         .  .  .  195-198 
Railways  —  Light      railway 

system,    .  .  .         243 

Raimeis,       .  .  .         153 

Recess  Committee :—  .         83, 

210  seq.  238,  241 

Cadogan.  Lord,  and,  .  224, 225 

Constitution  proposed,  .  215 
Finlay,  Father  Thomas,  .  218 
Gill,  Mr.  T.  P.  .  .  219 

Ideas  leading  to  its  forma- 
tion, .  .  .213 
M'Carthy,  Mr.Justin,  letter,  215 
Members,  .  .  .218 
Mulhall,  Mr.  Michael,  .  219 
Nationalist  members,  .  222 
Recommendations,  .  220 
Redmond,  Mr.  John,  and,  .  217 
Report,  .  .  10,129,221 
Results,  -  .  .223  seq. 
State-aid  question,  .  223 
Tisserand's  memorandum, .  220 
Redmond,  Mr.  John  :— 

Recess  Committee,  .         217 

Religion : — 

Influence  of  on  Irish  life,  59,  94  seq. 
Protestantism,  .  98, 99, 119 

Roman  Catholic  Church  (see 

that  title). 

Sectarian  animosities,  .  98, 99 
Toleration,  meaning  of 

word,       .  .  .95 

Ritualistic  movement,  .          99 

Robertson,  Lord :  - 

University  Commission,     .         140 
Roman  Catholic  Church  :— 
Church-building    and     in- 
crease    of     monasteries, 
etc.,         .  .          107,108,109 

Clergy : — Action  and  atti- 
tude towards  questions  of 
the  day,  .  105  seg. 

Authority  of,  .  96, 105  seq. 
Co-operative  movement,  .  119 
Moral  influence,  .  115,  U6 

Political  influence,  .    77,117 

Temperance  reform,  .  112, 114 

Economic  conditions,  influ- 
ence on  .  .  101  seq. 
Effect  on  Irish  character,  101-105, 110 
Higher  education  of  Roman 

Catholics,  .  .97,132 

Rosebery,  Lord  :— 
Attitude    towards    Home 

Rule,       ...  4 

Ross,  Mr.  John  : — 

Recess  Committee,  .         218 

Royal  College  of  Science,  229,  268,  270 
Royal  Commission  on  Univer- 
sity Education,     .       118. 128,  140 


PAGE 

Royal  Dublin  Society,  Aid  to 
Department  of   Agricul- 
ture,       .  .  .279 
Royal  University  education, 

defects  in,  .  128 

Rural  life:— 

Emigration,  causes  of,  .  40, 116 
Gaelic  revival's  influence  on,  159 
Industries,  .  52, 262, 268 

Problem  of,  .  39. 51, 263 

Rehabilitation,       .  .  159, 199 

Russell,  George  W.  (A.  E.),    .         200 

SAUSBURT,  LORD  :— 
"Twenty  years  of  resolute 

government,"      .  .          64 

Saunderson,  Colonel: — 

Receas  Committee,  .         217 

Scotch-Irish  in  America,       .          71 
Sea  Fisheries — Department  of 
Agriculture's      improve- 
ment schemes,     .  .         282 
Self-help  movement  (see  Co- 
operative movement). 
Sentiment :— Anti  -  English, 

cause  of,  .  .   13  seq. 

Force  of  in  Irish  question,  .  15, 127 
Separation,  Home  Rule  and,  87 
Shinnors,  Rev.  Mr.  :— 

Irish  in  America,   .  .         Ill 

Sinclair,  Thomas : — 

Recess  Committee,  .         218 

Social    order,    Irish    attach- 
ment to,  .  .          54 
Spectator  .-—English  non-allow- 
ance for  sentiment,  .  15 
Speed's  Chronicle  :— 

Con  O'Neal,  etc.     .  .          57 

Spencer,  Lord,  .  .         168 

Starkie,  Dr.  :— 
Mr.      Wyse's      education 

scheme,  .  .        126 

State-aid:—  .  .  45,211, 

219, 220,  223 

Stephen  J.  K.("Cynicus")    .         164 
Stopford  Brooke,       .  .          92 

Swine  fever,  .  .        251 

TECHNICAL  Instruction,        .  130, 228, 
234  seq.  257,  263,267,279 

Temperance  Reform,  .  112  seq. 

Tenure    question    and   land 

question,  .  .          41 

Tillage,  decrease  of,  .          42 

Tisserand,  M.  :— 
Recess   Committee   memo- 
randum, .  ,        99ft 

Tobacco  culture, 

Trinity  College,  influence  of. 


Two  Irelands, 


282 
134, 

136  seq. 
37 


ULSTER  :— 
Attitude  towards  the  rest 

of  Ireland,  .  .          33 

Home  Rule,  objections  to,  66,86, 87 


3OO  INDEX. 

PAGE  PAGE 

Ulster  Liberal  Unionist  Asso-  University  Question—  continued. 

ciation,  political  thought  Trinity  College,  influence 

in,                          .              .66  of,                       .134,  136se<?. 

Unionist  (Irish)  Party  :—  University  reform  neces- 

Industnal  element  in  Irish  sary,    .                                   133 
life  and,  .              .              67,  68,  86 

VANDELECR      Estate,      co- 


Ulsterand  Home  Rule,     66,86  rnS"''     '  IIQ 

United  Ireland,  first  real  con-  Village  libraries,       .             .  119,  199 

ception  of,  .77 

United  Irish  League,             .          90  WOLFF,  MR.  HENRT  W.  :— 

University  Question  :—          .    99,  109  People's  banks,       .             .        199 

Catholic  University  :—  Wyndham,  Mr.  :  — 

O'Dea,  Dr.,  on,     .              .         141  Land  Act.  1903,       .              .     10,  12 

O'Dwyer,  Dr.,  on,             .        140  Wyse.  Mr.  Thomas  :- 

Hyde,  Dr.,   evidence  be-  Scheme  of  Irish  education,         125 

fore  Commission,  .        151 

Maynooth,  influence  of,     .        134, 

136,138,139  YEATS,  W.  B.           .             .154 

Place  of  the  University  in  Yerburgh,  Mr.  R.  A.  :— 

education,        .             .        133  Agricultural  banks,            .         199 


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